Seán Power
Ceist:186 Mr. S. Power asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if he will consider the labelling of all meat products sold here in view of the huge amount of imported meat. [16482/03]
Written Answers. - Food Safety.
All meat products must be labelled in accordance with the requirements stipulated in the general labelling legislation. With regard to beef, EU labelling regulations introduced in 2000 require operators involved in the marketing of beef to label their product with a reference code to enable 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 the country in which it is located; the approval number of the de-boning hall and the country in which it is located; and an indication of the origin of the animal from which the beef was derived.
For the purpose of these regulations, marketing means all aspects of beef production and marketing up to and including sale through retail outlets. On a wider scale where meat and meat products are imported, the above labelling requirements, which are compulsory in all member states, apply to the marketing of beef within the European Community, regardless of whether that beef was produced within the Community or in a third country. Where beef is imported in to the Community from a third country and not all the above details are available, that beef must, at a minimum, be labelled as "Origin: non-EC" along with an indication of the third country in which slaughter took place. As the Deputy will be aware, last year I established an expert group to look at the whole issue of food labelling, including beef – and also other meats where EU labelling requirements are not as extensive. In its report, which it presented to me in December 2002, the group made a number of recommendations relating to the labelling of origin: Information on the origin of fresh, chilled and frozen sheepmeat, pigmeat and poultrymeat sold in retail outlets, prepackaged or otherwise, should be declared; information on the origin of the primary meat protein source – beef, sheepmeat, pigmeat and poultrymeat – sold in the food service sector should be provided to the consumer; consumer research should be carried out to establish (a) how origin should be defined in respect of fresh, chilled and frozen sheepmeat, pigmeat and poultrymeat sold in retailoutlets, (b) how origin should be defined in respect of the primary meat protein source – beef, sheepmeat, pigmeat, poultry meat – sold in the food service sector and (c) the usefulness-effectiveness of the beef labelling regulations from a consumer perspective; only where an imported food product undergoes substantial transformation in the importing country can the name of the importing country be given as the country of origin on the label or at the point of sale-consumption. To this effect "substantial transformation" should be clearly defined and harmonised across all EU member states.
I have established an inter-agency committee to progress the recommendations contained within this report. The committee comprises of representatives of all Departments involved in food labelling, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland and the Food Safety Promotion Board. At my request, the consumer liaison panel has devised a strategy for consumer research on this issue and I have allocated funding for this. The consumer liaison panel has sought tenders to carry out this research. I anticipate that the research should commence shortly.