France: Mandatory indication of origin for meat served away from home

01-Mar-2022 - France

Diners in French restaurants, canteens and cafeterias will have the right to know where the meat on their plates comes from. As of Tuesday, chicken, pork and lamb dishes served outside the restaurant must show the country in which the animals were raised and slaughtered, according to the Paris Ministry of Agriculture. According to a spokeswoman, this information must appear directly on the menu.

It should be unnecessary to ask. It should also be clear whether the meat is fresh, chilled or frozen.

This information has been mandatory for beef in France since 2002. In the case of chicken, pork and lamb, they were previously only required for sale in supermarkets and butcher shops. The new regulation is a response to consumers' increased expectations of transparency, it said. It also aims to increase the proportion of meat produced in France, for example in school canteens. Up to now, half of the meat served there has come from abroad.

With these regulations, France is going beyond EU requirements. At EU level, the indication of origin is only mandatory for certain prepackaged and unpackaged foods. However, as soon as the products are processed - as in restaurants or canteens - this labeling requirement is dropped, according to the German Federation of Consumer Organizations. "In order for consumers to be able to reliably identify the origin of food, there needs to be EU-wide, mandatory origin labeling for all food, including all ingredients in processed products," the association demands.

In response to a question, the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture said it would work for an EU-wide regulation. This would be advantageous "compared to a patchwork of national regulations" that might not hold up in court. As part of the so-called farm-to-fork strategy, the EU Commission is to present a proposal by the fourth quarter for an extension of mandatory origin labeling for certain foods. Should no satisfactory solution be found at EU level, national solutions would be reserved./vio/DP/stk (dpa)

Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.

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