Meat and edible meat offal; Meat, fish, crustaceans

The Third Amendment Act amending the Animal Husbandry Labelling Act will reform the current German animal husbandry labelling legislation drastically. On one hand, it will provide greater flexibility and simplification for the industry and therefore reduce administrative costs. On the other hand, the animal husbandry labelling will be expanded to meals which include pork and which are not prepared by the consumers themselves at home but available for purchase at restaurants and other catering facilities. Furthermore, this act will remove the current voluntary nature of participation in the German animal husbandry labelling scheme. Therefore, non-German market participants will have to participate in the labelling scheme if they wish to place their pork products on the German market. Simplifications: German pig farmers who only implement the (lowest) animal husbandry category ‘Stall’ will be exempt from the obligation to notify the competent authority. The lowest category ‘Stall’ stands for the minimum animal welfare requirements, which are applicable in Germany due to the animal welfare legislation and which German pig farmers have to comply with by default. This amendment will reduce unnecessary bureaucracy both for the industry as well as for the administration. In addition, the food industry will be enabled to use the procedure ‘downgrading’. ‘Downgrading’ describes a procedure where pork can be labelled with a lower animal husbandry category (and therefore with lower…