Understanding meat labels

Related tags Meat

Today strict EU rules on the labelling of meat-based products enter
into force. Their aim? To provide consumers with clearer
information on the meat products they eat.

Today marks the entry of strict EU rules on the labelling of meat-based products that aim to provide consumers with clearer information on the meat products they eat.

The European Directive amending current EU labelling legislation has tightened up the definition of the term 'meat' for the labelling of meat-based products entered into force on 1 January, with a six month grace period until the end of June 2003. The new definition will allow consumers to clearly see if they are eating muscle-meat, fat or offal on products such as sausages, pâté and cooked meats.

EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection David Byrne commented: "The Directive is clear on the need to indicate which species the meat comes from, so as to distinguish for example 'pig meat' from 'beef meat'."

For the first six months of the year, food products produced in keeping with the new rules and the old rules were both allowed on the market. Now this is over.

All products will have to be labelled in conformity with the new rules. However, the trade in goods labelled before the end of June will continue to be authorised, while stocks last.

Broadly, the tighter rules restrict the definition of meat to the skeletal-attached muscles. Other parts of animals for human consumption, such as offal - including the heart, intestine and liver - or fat, will now have to be labelled as such and not as 'meat'.

The new European rules also provide for the systematic indication of the species from which the meat comes so that for example 'beef meat' is distinguished from 'pig meat'.

Finally, the definition excludes 'mechanically separated meat'. In beef, mechanically separated meat has been banned entirely due to BSE. For other species, mechanically separated meat will have to be labelled separately and cannot form part of the meat content of any products in which it occurs.

Efforts by the UK Food Standards Agency to persuade the Commission to push for new measures to prevent high levels of unnecessary water in chicken may well have paid off. Hailing the new meat measures today, Byrne added: "I have decided that there is a need for further labelling requirements for chicken and other meat preparations. I will propose to the Member States that we create legislation requiring the explicit mention of for example 'chicken breast with added water' on the food label."

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