§ Mr. Nicholas WintertonTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, what research his Department is currently funding or initiating into the effects of pyrrolizidine alkaloids in foods: who is undertaking that research: what is its purpose: and if he will make a statement.
§ Mrs. BrowningThe Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food is currently funding one project at the university of Glasgow on pyrrolizidine alkaloids in foods. The506W additional grants available for slaughtering in continental countries, after a short period of residency, of lambs reared in Wales but which thereafter qualify as lambs of these other countries and benefit from grant eligibility for which they would not have qualified had they been slaughtered in Wales; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. JackI am not aware that any member state of the EU is paying slaughter premiums on lambs slaughtered in its abattoirs. Such premiums would distort competition and constitute an illegal state aid. I would not hesitate to encourage the Commission to take action in the face of evidence that any such grants were paid.
Welsh lamb slaughtered in, say, France currently attracts a premium price on the market as compared with Welsh lamb exported to France in carcase form. This is because lambs slaughtered in France carry a French health stamp and can legitimately be described as "home killed", whatever their origin.
The Meat and Livestock Commission is making every effort to promote the image of British carcase meat exports on EU markets and has the full support of the Government in doing so.
§ Mr. WigleyTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many lambs were sold to market from farms in(a) England, (b) Scotland and (c) Wales in each of the past five years; and how many of the lambs from each country were exported.
§ Mr. JackThe total number of United Kingdom lamb marketings are given in the following table. These are then broken down by those slaughtered in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and those exported live from the UK as a whole.
[...]The number of lambs exported live is not broken down below the UK level.
project will study the relative toxicities of different pyrrolizidine alkaloids and should improve assessment of risk from ingestion of these alkaloids. Results of recent surveillance of levels of pyrrolizidine alkaloids in UK honey were published in the February edition of the Food Safety Information Bulletin.