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Calls for food labelling rules
Linda McAvan MEP, member of the European Parliament's committee on Public Health and Food Safety.
YORKSHIRE MEP Linda McAvan has called for stricter rules on food labelling after news broke of more brands containing horse meat instead of beef.
This week respected food manufacturer Findus was forced to take yet more meat products off supermarket shelves after tests revealed some of their products, including beef lasagne, contained up to 100 per cent horse meat.
Since then, many more retailers are withdrawing products and the Food Standards Agency is conducting an enquiry into what went wrong.
Mrs McAvan said: “We need to urgently review how we manage our food supply chain right across Europe.
“We were, after all, supposed to have learned the lessons after the BSE crisis. Laws were changed.
“Fresh beef products have to be labelled with their country of origin. However what we have discovered in the last few days is that once that fresh beef is processed in any way, these traceability systems break down.”
In 2011, new EU rules were agreed to improve food labelling but the aim at that time was to simply monitor the situation and come back to the issue in 2014.
Mrs McAvan added: “That review must be urgently brought forward.
“If Findus had been obliged to label the origin of the beef in its lasagne, my guess is that it would have paid much greater attention to its sourcing policies.
“Once again, it has taken a major scandal to make industry, and government, pause for thought. When will we ever learn?”
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Monday 20 May 2013
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