Consumers were being fooled as to the origin of poultry and pig meat and the EU had a responsibility to bring forward legislation to change this situation.

This was stated by Independent MEP Marian Harkin when she spoke in the European Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday, February 17th.  She said:- “In dealing with this matter I am particularly referring to products such as poultry and pig meat.  The situation that pertains in the EU at present is that poultry meat can be transported into the EU and substantially transformed.  For example by encasing the product in breadcrumbs or batter it becomes an EU product.

This is a nonsense and is designed to fool consumers.  We need country of origin labelling in order that consumers can make informed choices.  We have also the situation where poultry meat has been frozen, defrosted and then labelled and sold as Irish.

“Not only is this an example of inaccurate labelling, it is potentially dangerous to human health.  In note in recent weeks the UK Environment Secretary Hilary Benn and Nick Herbert, Conservative spokesman on Food & Rural Affairs have both called for learner food labelling.  I have no doubt that there is much support for accurate labelling across the EU as nobody could oppose giving accurate information to consumers and I am calling on the European Commission to act positively in this matter”, Marian Harkin MEP concluded.