BEUC Lobbies New EU Commission on Meat Origin

26 Sep 2014 --- As the EU Food policy chief designate unveils his 5 year plan at the European Parliament on September 30, high on his to-do list should be clearing up how European meat is labelled, particularly since the ‘horsemeat’ scandal.

September 2-30 sees the consumer lobby group BEUC running a public campaign to extend ‘Country of Origin Labelling’ (COOL) to all meat in processed food such as lasagne, ham and nuggets sold in Europe. While fresh meat’s origin will soon be no more mystery, there are no labelling plans yet for meat in processed foods.

BEUC’s campaign intends to turn the tide. Over nine thousand consumers have shared or liked the campaign on Facebook and Twitter so far.

“EU Commissioner-designate for Food & Health, Vytenis P. Andriukaitis, cannot turn a deaf ear – the Commission’s own research shows a whopping 9 out of every 10 consumers want to know where the animal was born, reared and slaughtered,” the group notes.

Monique Goyens, Director General of BEUC, commented: “This campaign is yet further proof that meat origin labelling is dear to EU consumers. The European Commission must listen to the 90% of Europeans who want to know where their meat comes from.”

“The recent horsemeat scandal severely eroded consumers’ trust in their food. Making the meat supply chain less opaque is part of the solution to restore this lost confidence. Mandatory origin labelling can play a major part.”