Warning on COOL protectionism

The debate concerning the EU labelling proposals was discussed by a panel of experts and international meat journalists in Brussels, following the European Parliament’s vote earlier this summer in favour of extending COOL to fresh meat from pigs, sheep, goat and poultry.

Hosted by the Belgian Meat Office and the Flanders Agricultural Marketing Board (VLAM), the panel discussed the potential threat that COOL poses to the single European market, as well as looking at issues of traceability in the face of health scares and sustainability.

René Maillard, of the Belgian Meat Office, said that inter-European trade was crucial to the industry, as all EU countries are both exporters and importers of European meat. He said that the total intra-EU trade of pig meat currently stands at 5.7m tonnes. He said there was a growing trend towards a nationalised approach to food production, which may have an impact on export potential and importing countries. He cited examples from the trade between the US and Canada, which has seen a 32% decline in live imports from Canada after labelling that differentiates between country of birth, rearing, slaughter and processing was introduced in 2008.

Paul Coenan, managing director of VLAM Cologne, denied that COOL had nothing to do with traceability, food safety or sustainability, and said the only solution to prevent food crises was a robust traceability and tracking system, rather than labelling which could prompt customers to reject imported meat in favour of their own country’s produce.

However, Julien De Deyn, of Belgian-based pork and beef wholesaler Rima NV said: “Retail must give the choice to customers and listen to their demands.”

UK Agriculture Minister Jim Paice, along with the NFU, Food and Drink Federation (FDF) and British Retail Consortium (BRC) have previously expressed their commitment to COOL, arguing that it will provide clear, honest labelling and prevent consumers being misled with regard to the origin of a food products.

They have called for an extension of the current proposal, which would provide country of origin information about products that use meat as an ingredient labelled, as well as single-ingredient products.

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