§ Mr. AshleyTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he has any evidence that animal offal, brain, bowels, feet and testicles are present in any baby foods; and what would be their effects on the health of babies.
§ Mr. RyderThe Ministry has no evidence that brain, bowels, feet, testicles or any animal offal other than liver or kidney are present in any baby foods. Liver and kidney are used in the preparation of some baby foods because of the high nutritional value they bestow.
§ Mr. AshleyTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will take steps to require all baby foods to have on their labels the quantity, quality and nature of their ingredients.
§ Mr. RyderThe EC food labelling directive and the Food Labelling Regulations 1984 require prepacked foods to be marked or labelled with a list of ingredients in descending order of weight. The Food Act 1984 makes it an offence to sell food which is not of the nature, substance or quality demanded by the consumer and also an offence to provide labelling which is misleading as to nature, substance or quality of the food.
The proposed EC directive on foods for particular nutritional uses would provide for specific directives which may control the description, composition, labelling, advertising and presentation of certain categories of foods, including baby foods. It could be therefore that the European Community will develop specific rules for the labelling of baby foods.