HC Deb 19 November 1991 vol 199 cc134-5W
Mr. Ron Davies

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when and by what mechanism he proposes to implement Council directives 71/118 on trade in fresh poultrymeat and 89/662 concerning veterinary checks in intra-Community trade.

Mr. Maclean

EC directive 71/118, on trade in fresh poultry meat, was implemented in England and Wales by the Poultry Meat (Hygiene) Regulations 1976 (as amended). Similar regulations were introduced in Scotland (also in 1976) and in Northern Ireland (in 1977). Detailed discussions on a range of issues arising out of the directives on veterinary checks are still on-going in Brussels. As a result mechanisms for implementation in this country of directive 89/662, which comes into force on 1 July 1992, are still under consideration.

Mr. Simon Hughes

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, what advice he has received from the Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment regarding the use of canthaxanthin; and if he will make it his policy to ban canthaxanthin in commercial egg production.

Mr. Maclean

The Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment has advised that the use of canthaxanthin in animal feeds should be discontinued. The United Kingdom has urged a prohibition on its use in feed in the EC. The Commission's export committees have advised that a decision should be made when further test data are available late next year.

I have accepted this position given that any effects on consumers from intake of canthaxanthin would only occur over a long period of time and are not of an acute toxicological nature. I also understand that the use of canthaxanthin in poultry feed has declined recently.

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