Ireland to introduce mandatory meat-origin labelling
Ireland’s government has informed the European Commission that it intends to introduce mandatory country-of-origin labels for certain meat products.
The new legislation will apply to fresh, chilled and frozen meat products.
Ireland’s Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine said: “The country intends to adopt national measures to cover mandatory origin labelling of fresh, chilled and frozen non-prepacked cuts of meat of swine, sheep, goats and poultry.”
The legislation will require Food Business Operators (FBOs) to clearly show the country of rearing and country of slaughter of any of the above products at either the point of presentation, point of sale or the point of supply.
The new rules will enable FBOs to present the origin of meat, and prove to authority that the meat referred to has been obtained from animals born, reared and slaughtered in one single Member State or third country.
The national measures require that where a FBO provides another FBO with meat, information relating to the meat is transmitted to the FBO receiving the meat in the manner prescribed in the national measures, in order to enable the provision of mandatory food information to the final consumer.
This specific legislation has been set down with regard to the labelling of beef products. This system of compulsory beef labelling based on origin has been in place since 2002.
As of April 2015, a country of origin label was required for prepacked meat of swine, sheep, goats and poultry supplied to the final consumer or mass caterer.
The new legislation will therefore cover Member States who can extend the labelling rules to loose product (non-prepacked cuts).
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