Vol. 530 No. 3
105 Cecilia Keaveney asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development the position in relation to the enforcement of labelling of meat products in all commercial outlets; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3531/01]
Since 1 September 2000, European Union regulations require operators or organisations involved in the production and marketing of beef to label it with the following information: a reference number or code which enables the beef to be traced back to the animal or group of animals from which it was derived; the approval number of the slaughterhouse and member state or third country in which it is located; the approval number of the deboning hall and member state or third country in which it is located.
The existing arrangements for the supervision of the production and marketing of beef have been extended to include the new compulsory beef labelling provisions. In other words, veterinary officers from my Department will ensure compliance with these labelling regulations in all export approved premises, local authority veterinary officials and environmental health officers will do the same with regard to domestic abattoirs and retail outlets respectively. The European Communities (Labelling of Beef and Beef Products) Regulations, 2000, were introduced by me last December to give legal effect to these controls.
