EU meat labelling laws risk ‘massive confusion’
New EU food labelling rules may lead to “massive confusion” for British shoppers on meat origin, warn farming unions.
The European Commission has voted to introduce mandatory reared and slaughtered labelling rules from 1 April, 2015.
This means labels will be required to carry information on the origin of animals for fresh, chilled and frozen pork, goat, sheep and poultry products, plus where they were reared and slaughtered. Similar rules already exist for fresh beef meat.
But the NFU and the National Pig Association (NPA) said the mandatory rules should include details of where animals were born, to increase consumer confidence at a time when the industry is still reeling from the horsemeat scandal.
Both organisations are concerned that labels could give the impression that a product is from the UK when, in fact, it was born in another country.
“Since 2010, in the country of origin industry voluntary guidelines, retailers and processors have been following good practice of origin labelling and any deviation from this undermines consumer trust and the integrity of British farmers.”
Meurig Raymond, NFU deputy president
NFU deputy president Meurig Raymond called on the UK government, retailers and the food processing industry to take a clear position to safeguard the integrity of the UK brand amid concerns about the potential to mislead consumers through the use of flags and other marketing claims on meat origins.
“Since 2010, in the country of origin industry voluntary guidelines, retailers and processors have been following good practice of origin labelling and any deviation from this undermines consumer trust and the integrity of British farmers,” he said.
“We hope they will continue to support consumer transparency and uphold the integrity of the UK and British brands. The Food Information Regulations are meant to provide consumers with transparency about where their food has come from and frankly this flies in the face of exactly that.”
NPA acting general manager Lizzie Press added: “Considering country of origin labelling was supposed to provide transparency and simplification in order to help consumers make an informed choice when shopping, the agreed proposal is now more confusing than ever and will require a great deal of explanation.
“There is the potential therefore, as an example, for the label to give the impression that a pig is wholly from the UK when it was born in another country and has spent only a proportion of its life, such as 10 weeks for a pig, in the country stated on the label.”