March 7, 2009

New EU regulations threaten UK poultry sector

The UK government must seek changes to an amendment to the EU Poultry Meat Marketing Regulations as it could seriously hurt the UK poultry sector, according to industry leaders.

The proposed amendment said that all chilled poultry preparations could not be made from previously frozen meat. Chilled poultry meat preparations are products made of raw chicken meat with other ingredients such as spices, marinades or stuffings.

Many are made from British poultry meat that has been produced and frozen earlier. If the amendment goes through, it means the sector would have many more farms and excess slaughterhouse and processing capacity lying idle for most of the year except the short period of high demand during Christmas, BPC chief executive Peter Bradnock said.

Bradnock warned this would also result in much higher costs to consumers and would be financially and environmentally unsustainable, and turkey meat would not be available in the form consumers want to buy.

Bradnock added that the new regulations not only remove a safe and convenient food product, but will also put British poultry producers at a serious competitive disadvantage against other chilled meat products.