§ Miss McIntoshTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent representations he has made to other EU countries on labelling the origin of meat and meat products. [33932]
§ Yvette Cooper[holding answer 6 February 2002]: The Food Standards Agency is responsible for representing the United Kingdom at working level on these matters and has taken the lead in pressing for changes to European labelling rules to require country of origin labelling on a wider range of foods, particularly meat products. It is also pressing for changes that would prevent misleading labelling by restricting the use of terms like "produce of' to those foods where the main ingredients come from, and production processes occur in, the named place or country. Other EU member states support the UK's initiative on this issue.