Later this month, the Department of Agriculture is to review comments it received on proposed legislation which will require the mandatory labelling of certain non-prepacked meat cuts.

The legislation will see the origin labelling of pigmeat, sheepmeat, goatmeat and poultry.

Since April 2015, country of origin labelling has been required for prepacked meat of pigs, sheep, goats and poultry supplied to the final consumer or mass caterer.

National measures

In October of last year, the Irish Government notified the European Commission of its intention to adopt national measures to cover mandatory origin labelling of fresh, chilled and frozen non-prepacked cuts of meat of pigs, sheep, goats and poultry.

This proposed legislation will require food business operators to clearly show the country of rearing and country of slaughter of any pigmeat, sheepmeat, goatmeat and poultry at either the point of presentation, point of sale or the point of supply.

Where it can be proven that the meat has come from animals born, reared and slaughtered in one single member state or third country, then the food business operator can present just the origin of the meat on the label.

Refrigerated counters

Non-prepacked raw meat is predominately sold at refrigerated counters in retail outlets, which includes butcher shops.

These labelling rules are already in place for beef being sold loose without packaging.

The proposed rules do not include cured meats, such as rashers or sausages, or meat products which have been further processed.

Public consultation

A public consultation in 2015 on the labelling changes by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) found that consumers were in favour of stricter labelling of the meat products.

Speaking at the launch of the public consultation in 2015, then Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney said this is a further step in providing consumers with more practical information regarding the origin of the meat they consume.

“EU regulations for mandatory origin labelling refer only to prepacked meat, but also allow member states to go further and extend the same rules to loose non-prepacked meat.

“I believe this can be done at little extra cost, using existing traceability systems, and that it would be warmly welcomed by consumers.”

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