Clearer food labelling giving more choice to Welsh shoppers welcomed

Deputy Minister for Farming and Food, Rebecca Evans today welcomed new EU legislation which comes into force today giving consumers more information when buying food products in Wales.

From today, packaging on many fresh and frozen meat products must carry a country of origin, or place of provenance label, which will indicate where that animal was reared, and slaughtered.

Food businesses must also now have an identification and registration system in place that ensures the link between the meat and the animal from which it has been obtained at slaughter, to ensure proper traceability of animals across the whole food chain.

The Deputy Minister said:

“I am pleased to have supported efforts to improve food labelling in Wales which will provide more information to consumers in a way that is not overly-burdensome on producers. The new regulations should give consumers clearer information on the source and provenance of their purchases, which will help them to buy Welsh produce.

“Farmers and industry leaders have been raising the issue of clearer information on food labels with me for some time, so I am hopeful these new rules will go some way to improving the situation.

“In Wales we are working side by side with the industry to support our farmers through this challenging period and want to see that our producers are being rewarded for their quality produce.

“I continue to meet with the supermarkets regularly and recently raised the issue of their sourcing policies for red meat and dairy. While at the Royal Welsh Show I also had the chance to meet with the Secretary of State from Defra and once more made the case for reforming the red meat levy.”

A report published by the European Commission in 2013 showed that 90% of consumers felt it was important that origin information was displayed on fresh and processed meats.

Subsequent regulations to make country of origin labelling mandatory were implemented across the EU in April and specific regulations to enable the same powers to apply in Wales come into force today.