A motion tabled by Green MEPs to reject new rules proposed by the European Commission on origin labelling for meat was endorsed in a European Parliament vote today.
The Greens welcomed the outcome and called on the Commission to come forward with new and more comprehensive proposals, with Green food safety.
The Green Party’s MEP for South East England, Keith Taylor, said:
“We’re very pleased that a majority of MEPs have joined Greens in voting to send this inadequate legislation back to the Commission. After the horsemeat scandal in the UK people are increasingly concerned about the origin of the food they are eating.
We need full transparency in the food production chain, including country of birth labelling. Displaying this information is also an important tool for meat-eaters who want to choose to eat meat from animals that did not suffer the stress of long-distance transport, given the failure to reduce animal transport times in the EU.
The proposal from the Commission would provide only for the country of rearing and slaughter to be named on the label but not the country of birth. This must be redressed. While today's vote is not binding, we hope the Commission will heed the outcome and come forward with a new proposal providing for full transparency.
I know that many of my constituents are worried about where their food is coming from and I’ll continue to push for changes in the way our food is labelled to ensure people have access to all the information they need to make informed decisions.”