Sheep Meat: India

(asked on 5th February 2019) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether all sheep meat exported to India under the Government's new agreement announced on 5 December 2018 will be from animals that were stunned before slaughter.


Answered by
David Rutley Portrait
David Rutley
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
This question was answered on 20th February 2019

In the Export Health Certificate (EHC) agreed with India there was no mention of stun or non-stun, as is the case with any EHC. However all slaughter of animals for export must strictly comply with EU and UK rules on animal welfare. Any additional requirements, including slaughter methods, is a matter for the importing and exporting parties to agree.

There are many animal health requirements within any EHC, these differ depending on the importing country. It is a document that refers to the origin of the animals that have been slaughtered in approved abattoirs and comply with a number of health requirements, including free from a number of animal diseases. This EHC differs in the respect that the Indian authorities insisted that a long lists of diseases, many of them not notifiable in the UK, be included in the EHC. This requires that owner/farm vet declarations are conveyed to the certifying veterinarian. This is not a straight forward process.

Since the market was opened in December, no exports of sheep meat to India have taken place.

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