Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has to require labelling of meat to show animals slaughtered without prior stunning; if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing more detailed food labelling to promote animal welfare, including the method of slaughter; and if he will make statement.

There are currently no regulations that require the labelling of meat with the method of slaughter, but where any information is provided voluntarily it must be accurate and not misleading to the consumer. The Government expects the industry, whether food producer or food outlet, to provide consumers with all the information they need to make informed choices about the food they eat.

The Government has committed to consult on what can be done through labelling to promote high standards and high welfare across the UK market. We will shortly launch a call for evidence to assess the impacts of different types of labelling reforms for animal welfare, including method of slaughter. This will feed into the Government’s wider work on food labelling to ensure that consumers can have confidence in the food they buy and to facilitate the trade of quality British food at home and abroad.