Michael Noonan
Ceist:111 Mr. Noonan asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the steps he has taken to introduce mandatory food labelling; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4838/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraWednesday, 18 February 2004
Ceisteanna (43)
Freagraí scríofa
There is considerable legislation already in place governing the labelling of food, which is mandatory. Food labelling is a particularly complicated and broad based area. It involves a number of Departments and Government agencies. The main piece of legislation for the labelling, presentation and advertising of foodstuffs is European Council Directive 2000/13/EC. The responsibility for this legislation rests with the Minister for Health and Children and he is also responsible for labelling legislation such as nutrition claims and novel foods. This legislation is enforced through the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, FSAI. The Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources is responsible for the policy on labelling of fish and fish products with the FSAI responsible for enforcement. Within my own area of responsibility, there is a number of pieces of legislation on the labelling of specific products ranging from beef, poultry and sugar to spirit drinks, coffee and fruit juices.
Given the complexity involved and increasing consumer concern, I established a food labelling group to examine the whole area and since receiving its report in December 2002, I have assiduously implemented the recommendations of that group. The measures implemented included action on centralising enforcement of food labelling regulations in the Food Safety Authority, FSAI. This will not only streamline enforcement measures but provide a one stop shop for any complaints or mislabelling of food.
In the past couple of weeks, I introduced two regulations in relation to the labelling of poultry meat. The first of these regulations require poultry meat, loose and pre-packaged, originating in a country outside the EU to bear an indication of the country of origin when offered for sale in a retail premises. The second requires information regarding class, price per unit weight, condition and slaughterhouse details in respect of loose poultry meat, that is, non-prepackaged, to be provided to the consumer. Heretofore, while these labelling indications have been compulsory for pre-packaged poultry meat, it had not been a requirement to provide this information for poultry meat sold loose.
In addition to the above mentioned action, I have arranged that each sector will be reviewed on a commodity by commodity basis to identify any deficiencies, from a consumer viewpoint, in the labelling regulations for those commodities. Further action will be taken over the coming period in other commodity areas.
In the beef sector, EU beef labelling regulations on origin do not currently apply to beef sold in the food service outlets. These regulations are currently being reviewed in Brussels. In the context of that review, I wrote to Commission Fischler asking him to consider including a provision for the labelling of origin of meat in such outlets. It is expected that a report on the review will be issued in March.