Food Labelling - The EU Backpedals

I few weeks ago I wrote about how halal meat was entering the food chain without being labelled.

My main concern was that this meat is not slaughtered to British standards and much of it is imported.  I was fortunate be provided with information from Osama Saeed who assured me that the majority of halal meat is subject to stunning, although the statistics would appear to cover the UK slaughtered meat only.

Earlier this year MEPs voted in favour of German MEP Renate Sommer's proposed amendment to draft legislation on food labelling which would mean that meat and meat products from ritually slaughtered animals must carry the label 'Meat from slaughter without stunning'.

However on Tuesday the European Council of Ministers today approved a draft of new food information regulation that did not include amendment 205.

The latest move to drop the proposals follows a Europe-wide lobbying campaign by the Jewish food lobby group Shechita UK, which has targeted European Ministers representing their various governments at the Council of Ministers.  Shechita UK has argued that unless meat from religiously slaughtered animals is allowed to slip into the general market covertly, the meat will become commercially unviable.  Electrical pre-stunning is not allowed under strict Jewish traditions, whereas the practice is acceptable to many British Muslims.

The NSS has been pressing the UK government to support the amendment, arguing where religious exemptions have been made to animal welfare regulations, no more animals should be slaughtered under the exemptions than is necessary for the religious market.  In a letter to the NSS just weeks before the latest move, Jim Paice MP, Minister of State for Agriculture and Food, signalled the UK Government's intention to oppose the labelling amendment say that he had recently met with Shechita UK to help him "understand the concerns driving their opposition to labelling".

That remark leads me to believe it was the Jewish lobby which halted transparent meat and meat product labelling.  It certainly appears to have lobbied Westminster successfully and therefore their religiously slaughtered meat will continue to be covertly slipped into the UK's food chain. Who said we benefit from the EU?  If we were a democracy our government would legislate in accordance with the majority's wishes and, as far as I understand, the majority of the population would prefer to know how their meat is slaughtered.  If nothing is done I can foresee the day when all UK meat and meat products are halal, mainly to appease one or two religions.

If you don't have a respected butcher near you, stick to what one commenter recommended on my initial post - scotch pies.

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This is not an anti-Muslim post.  It is a story about animal cruelty because rather than being killed with a bolt to the head, a halal animal is killed by having it's throat slit and bleeding to death 'in accordance with strict Islamic law.'

When I first heard about halal meat being served in various outlets I thought the media were mischief making.  My grandfather was of a generation who fought for the humane slaughtering of animals which resulted in the Humane Slaughter Act of 1933.

Evidence is now readily available that sports fans are being served Halal meat without their knowledge. All beef, chicken and lamb at Wembly, Ascot and Twickenham is halal.  Whitbread, which owns Costa Coffee shops and Premier Inn hotels said 80 per cent of its chicken is halal.  School children are being fed halal meat and hospital patients - all without their knowledge.

GateGourmet, the Swiss-based catering giant which caters for all long-haul British Airways flights from Heathrow, wants to standardise production to drive down costs and boost profits. Peter van Niekerk, head of GateGroup in the UK, said : "We are competing for some more halal business and when we make that, the scale tips."  He said the company would consult with ustomers such as BA and Cathay Pacific to 'manage perceptions and manage such a transition'.  No bacon rolls on these flights in future.

Do we need to be informed?  Can you taste the difference?  If it is says 'halal' on the menu does it matter to you?

Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell, secretary of the Associate Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare, says : "The vast majority of people in this country would not want meat of this origin."  Has he done a survey?

I'm reasonably content eating the little meat I do because I know it has been humanely killed.  My butcher can easily trace the animal back to the farm of origin.  But not all people have easy access to an old-fashioned butcher these days.  In supermarkets it can be difficult to assess the origin of meat as the labelling is confusing and the staff appear to be just as confused.

Do I want to eat halal meat?  No.  I wouldn't be comfortable knowing the process of the animal's death. Meat producers say the demand for halal meat is increasing.  Whitbread say they don't specify halal as a requirement in their procurement.  They base their decision on quality and price.  Some of their halal poultry comes from Turkey. Why would anyone want to eat a chicken which has come all the way from Turkey when we have a thriving poultry industry in the UK?  Price.

A couple of years ago I made a conscious decision to stop buying so much 'fresh' food from abroad.  Yes I do miss my baby sweetcorn and mangetout but I've found tasty replacements.  Bananas, melons and advocados I still purchase but that's about all. There is the other side of the argument of course. High quality Scottish beef, prawns and langoustines are exported to Europe.  Would I eat an Aberdeen Angus steak in France?  I doubt it because I prefer to eat local produce.

Do I want to be informed I'm eating halal meat without having to ask?  Yes.

As from now, when I eat out I intend to ask the source of the food I'm eating.  If I don't trust the reply then I'll choose the vegetarian option, a pork dish or leave.

We're fortunate enough to have a choice of home-produced food. I'm not suggesting anyone boycott the likes of Whitbread establishments, but I do suggest more of us become aware of the source of what we put in our mouths.  We may be surprised - and not pleasantly.

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