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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will introduce mandatory labelling on meat products to indicate whether animals were stunned prior to slaughter.

The Government encourages the highest standards of animal welfare at slaughter and would prefer all animals to be stunned before slaughter, but we respect the rights of Jews and Muslims to eat meat prepared in accordance with their religious beliefs.

It is for religious authorities to decide if meat is halal or kosher. A significant proportion of halal meat comes from animals that are stunned before slaughter. There are no regulations that require labelling of meat to include the method of slaughter, but where any information of this nature is provided it must be accurate and must not be misleading to the consumer. The Government respects religious freedoms and expects the industry, whether food producer or food outlet, to provide consumers with all the information they need to make informed choices.

A consultation on proposals to improve and extend current mandatory method of production labelling was undertaken last year by the previous government. The consultation sought views on options for the production standards behind the label. We are now carefully considering all responses before deciding on next steps.

The Department engages regularly with the Food Standards Agency on a range of topics.