§ Mr. CoakerTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement about the steps he is taking to ensure clearer labelling on food. [5202]
§ Mr. RookerThe Government believes that consumers have a right to receive information about the foods they buy and we are taking a number of steps to improve on that presently.
On mechanically recovered meat, we recently succeeded in getting the rest of Europe to agree that this should be separately and specifically declared on the label. We have also sought comments from interested parties on the operation of the nutrition labelling rules and invited suggestions for improvements to take forward in Brussels. Finally, we have recently announced our intention to press in Europe for all food to be labelled if they contain genetically modified material.