Jun 27, 2011
EU supports meat labelling
The outcome of a talk among the European Parliament, European Council and European Commission has stated that fresh pork, poultry, lamb and goat meat should be labelled with their country of origin in the EU but the labelling will not be used for processed meat or dairy products, according to the Dutch media.
The European Parliament initially wanted a country of origin labelling for all meat and dairy but many member states as well as the European Commission opposed this proposal as it would be too complicated to guarantee it would work.
The commission therefore promised an impact assessment to be carried out over the next two or three years, to see if further steps need be taken.
In many EU countries, a method using a light regime is opted for. This would exclude mentioning an animal's country of birth, simply because in that case, many different batches of meat have to be separated in processing plants.
The European Parliament also wished to have implemented a mandatory labelling for all meat slaughtered without the prior use of anesthetics. In particular, France and Spain oppose this proposal, since there are many Muslim communities within their borders that slaughter their meat without prior use of anesthetics.
Mandatory origin labelling for beef and veal was agreed in the EU in 2000, at the start of the Europe's second BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) crisis.