As the British Poultry Council explained, the proposed amendment would mean that all chilled poultry preparations, such as "ready-to-cook" meals, which has seen significant growth in recent years, could not be made from previously frozen meat. "Chilled poultry meat preparations are products incorporating raw poultry meat with other ingredients such as herbs and spices, bastes, marinades or stuffings.
Many are made from British poultrymeat that has been produced and frozen earlier to be able to meet periods of very high seasonal demand, such as the summer barbecue and Christmas periods. They are often subsequently sold to the consumer in a chilled (unfrozen state).
If the amendment goes ahead, BPC chief executive Peter Bradnock warned that it would mean the sector having many more farms and excess slaughterhouse and processing capacity lying idle for most of the year except the short period of high demand at Christmas. "Such an approach would result in much higher costs to consumers and would be financially and environmentally unsustainable. Turkey meat would not be available in the form consumers are keen to buy."
He added that the new law not only removes a safe and convenient food product, but it will also put British poultry producers at a serious competitive disadvantage against other chilled meat products.
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Therefore, the poultry sector including the British Poultry Council and NFU has put forward a compromise to which benefits consumers as well as producers. This would involve putting on the label that the product has been made using raw or cooked poultrymeat that has been previously frozen, together with country of origin of the meat itself.
And NFU poultry board chairman Charles Bourns added that putting the country of origin on the label would be help consumers identify imported chicken.
Source: FWI
