UK seeks clearer EU food labels after Irish pork scare

UK is pushing for clearer food labels from EU food imports following last month's scare with dioxin-tainted Irish pork, said farm minister Hilary Benn on Tuesday (Jan 6).

Benn said under current EU regulations, a product's country of origin is the place where it underwent its last significant process.

He said EU labels should indicate where an animal was born, reared and slaughtered.

He also said he was talking to processors and retailers about voluntarily introducing country of origin labelling.

He added that the scare over Irish pork in December and problems involved in identifying which product was affected showed good labelling are necessary.

Irish pork was pulled from supermarket shelves in more than 20 countries after dioxins up to 200 times the legal levels were found on 10 pig farms in Ireland.