§ Mr. AshleyTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if, pursuant to his answer to the right212W hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent, South, Official Report, 25 April, column 493, he will list the mechanical problems that he believes would arise if the European Commission's proposal for information labelling on food was implemented.
§ Mr. RyderThe European Commission's proposal concerns only post-harvest pesticide treatments. Some pesticide active ingredients can be used either pre or post-harvest. A requirement to label post-harvest might mislead consumers into believing no pre-harvest treatment had been given. In some cases it may be possible to evade the control by switching treatment which is normally post-harvest to the pre-harvest stage; it will be very difficult for the enforcement authorities to police such switching, and, more fundamentally, to test for the wide range of possible treatments.
There could also be problems for packers, wholesalers and retailers especially when they are dealing with consignments from a number of sources which have been subject to differing treatments. The costs need to be weighed against the benefits which might arise from the proposal, especially when the results of pesticide residue monitoring are published.