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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what checks her Department carries out on the traceability of food labelled with its country of origin; and if she will make a statement.

Trading Standards officials in Local Authorities are responsible for checking that food labelling information is accurate, and does not mislead the consumer. Recently, we have introduced new rules on country of origin labelling for unprocessed pork, lamb and poultry meat. Similar rules for beef have been in place for some time. As part of these rules, food sector businesses are required to have systems in place to ensure that information on the country of origin is passed on at each stage of the supply chain. Pre-packaged meat must also have a batch code, identifying the country of origin of the meat. When an enforcement officer identifies a potential problem with a country of origin claim they will follow the documentation back through the supply chain to check its accuracy.