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 extend country of origin labelling and related geographical origin protections to dairy and processed meat products after the UK leaves the EU.

The government believes in improving transparency for the consumer where practical. Within the EU, the UK argued for the extension of Country of Origin Labelling on fresh meats to include pork, poultry, lamb and goat meat which has applied since April 2015. There has been a requirement for Country of Origin labelling on beef since 2000. The UK has also supported Country of Origin Labelling for lightly processed dairy products such as butter and cheese and for lightly processed meat products such as bacon where this does not place unnecessary costs on businesses. We have also supported comprehensive voluntarily schemes, complementing the mandatory rules, covering many processed meat and dairy products. However, leaving the EU gives us an opportunity to consider the scope for further changes to the law in this area.