LABELLING - New European Meat Definition for Labelling

A consultation was carried out in February amongst the main interested parties. Generally, there was support for the proposal especially from consumer groups who viewed the tightening of the definition of meat positively. There were some comments on the fat and connective tissue limits but the Commission's new definition represents the best compromise position.

The new definition will:

• restrict the generic term "meat" qualified with the species name (in English this covers the descriptions pork, beef, chicken etc.) to skeletal muscle with naturally included or adherent fatty and connective tissues.
• require other parts of the carcase such as liver, kidney etc to be labelled as such i.e. no generic term "offal" permitted.
• introduce maximum numerical limits for associated fat and connective tissue. Three different sets of limits are applied depending on the species of the meat. Any fat or connective tissue, which exceeds these limits has to be labelled separately in the ingredients list.
• mechanically recovered meat (MRM), which already needs to be declared separately in the ingredients list, is not considered as meat for QUID purposes

EU Member States will have until 1 January 2003 to implement the new definition into their national law but any products manufactured before that date and which are labelled under the existing UK rules can continue to be sold until stocks run out.

The new definition is tighter than the existing one in the UK's Meat Products and Spreadable Fish Products Regulations 1984. These Regulations will be reviewed to take note of these technical changes and align them with the Labelling Directive and QUID provisions. However, the new definition is not aimed at changing current manufacturing practices only their labelling information. The Agency will carry out a full public consultation on the implementation of the agreed definition into national law which will involve a review of the continued use of reserved descriptions for "burgers", "sausages", etc., and their minimum meat content.