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The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney TD announced the launch of a public consultation process on the extension of mandatory country of origin labelling rules to non-prepacked meat. Such information is already provided for beef sold loose without packaging, but not for other meats.
It is important that stakeholders, including consumers, retailers, farmers and processors, have the opportunity to input to the development of these new rules and to identify any concerns they may have. This is the purpose of the consultation.
The Minister already introduced new rules to provide for mandatory country of origin labelling on packaged meat in April of this year, at which time he signalled his intention to extend these rules to also cover non-prepacked meat sold loose through refrigerated counters in retail outlets, including butcher shops. The proposed new rules would cover unprocessed meat from pigs, poultry, sheep and goats, and are being considered by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine in conjunction with the Department of Health.
These rules for loose meat would mean that consumers would be informed as to the EU Member State or third country where the animals concerned are reared and slaughtered.
Monday July 13, 2015/ Department of Agrifood, Agriculture and The Marine/ Ireland.
http://www.agriculture.gov.ie
