WRITTEN QUESTION E-0072/03 by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. The dangers of selling thawed deep-frozen meat as fresh meat and a requirement to warn consumers against refreezing it.
Date: 2003-01-23
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: consumer information, deep-frozen product, food safety, frozen product, labelling, marketing standard, meat

C 78 E/12

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

27.3.2004

Following article 1 of the Agreement, ‘respect for democratic principles and fundamental human rights …
underpins the domestic and external policies or both parties and constitutes an essential element of this
Agreement’. It also contains a ‘fulfilment of obligations’ clause which enables the Commission to take into
account the evolution of human rights in Mexico and the Member States as an essential part of their
relations, and establishes a mechanism for the Parties to react in case of failure to comply with the
objectives laid down in the Agreement.

The institutional framework established in the Agreement is, at present, the forum where an open and
productive political dialogue takes place at all
levels: presidential, ministerial and high ranking civil
servants. This allows the Union to exchange points of view concerning, among other bilateral and
multilateral issues, the evolution of human rights in both parties. The Commission considers that this
arrangement is satisfactory and is not pursuing, at this stage, the adoption of additional measures in this
area.

In September 2002 Mexico ratified the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons.
While the Commission commends Mexico’s ratification of this Convention, as it was drawn up by the
Organisation of American States, the Commission has no direct power of enforcement. However, it uses
the existing mechanisms to exchange views, and when necessary, to encourage its partners to respect and
implement at all levels the different human rights related agreements and conventions.

While the Commission is aware of certain levels of impunity and the continuation of some human rights
violations, it is hoped that greater political dialogue and focussed co-operation in this area will ensure that
Mexico’s ongoing struggle to reform is successful.

(2004/C 78 E/0013)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0072/03

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(23 January 2003)

Subject: The dangers of selling thawed deep-frozen meat as fresh meat and a requirement

to warn

consumers against refreezing it

1.
Is the Commission aware that deep-frozen meat imported into the EU is thawed and sold as fresh, as
was the case with the rabbit meat imported into the Netherlands from China at the beginning of 2002 and
sold in supermarkets around Christmas 2002 which then proved to have decayed?

Is the Dutch Food Inspection Service right to say that it is quite common to import deep-frozen meat

2.
and sell it as fresh without informing buyers of the fact?

3.
Is the Commission aware that the same is true of meat from wild animals which hunters shoot
throughout the year and which is then sold as fresh during the holiday period at the end of the year after
having been frozen for a long period?

4.
Can the Commission confirm that this procedure particularly causes problems if the buyer refreezes
the thawed meat at home with the intention of eating it later, which causes a rapid deterioration in its
quality?

Are there EU Member States where it is now compulsory to indicate on packaging that meat has

5.
already been frozen? If so, which?

6. Will the Commission take measures to ensure that a requirement exists throughout the EU for
vendors of packaged meat to distinguish clearly between meat which has already been stored in a deep-
freeze and meat from freshly slaughtered animals, and to warn buyers against refreezing meat which has
already been frozen?

Source: ‘Rotterdams Dagblad’, 28 December 2002.

27.3.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 78 E/13

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(17 March 2003)

The Commission is not aware of any complaints or reports concerning the marketing of decayed
it is assumed that the competent

1.
rabbit meat imported from China.
authorities of the Netherlands took the appropriate protective measures.

If such marketing took place,

The Commission is enquiring from the competent authorities of the Netherlands about the allegation

2.
made in question 2 and will write to the Honourable Member with the results of this enquiry.

The Commission has no information on the alleged practices in Member States concerning meat of

3.
domestic animals, rabbit meat or wild game meat.

Directive 2000/13/EC of the Parliament and of the Council of 20 March 2000 concerns the approximation
of the laws of the Member States relating to the labelling, presentation and advertising of foodstuffs (1).
Article 2(1) requires that labelling used must not mislead the purchaser as to the characteristics of the
foodstuff or attribute to the foodstuff effects or properties, which it does not possess.

4.
Freezing meat may affect its organoleptic qualities of appearance, odour and taste. Thawing frozen
meat causes fluid formation. Such fluid is a good medium for the growth of bacteria and might enhance
microbiological spoilage and growth of pathogenic bacteria. Re-freezing and subsequent re-thawing of
meat may accelerate the phenomenon.

Council Directive 89/108/EEC of 21 December 1988 on the approximation of the laws of the
5. and 6.
Member States relating to quick-frozen foodstuffs for human consumption (2) requires that such foodstuffs
in consumer packs must bear a clear message of the type ‘do not refreeze after defrosting’. Furthermore, in
relation to poultrymeat, Council Regulation (EEC) No. 1906/90 of 26 June 1990 on certain marketing
standards for poultrymeat (3) provides that poultrymeat sold under the presentations ‘fresh’,
‘frozen’ or
‘quick-frozen’ must have always been kept in the respective state.

(1) OJ L 109, 6.5.2000.
(2) OJ L 40, 11.2.1989.
(3) OJ L 173, 6.7.1990.

(2004/C 78 E/0014)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0201/03

by Emilio Menéndez del Valle (PSE) to the Commission

(3 February 2003)

Subject: Gibraltarian police violence

On 20 January 2003, in the bay of Algeciras, whose waters Spain considers Spanish, Greenpeace activists
carried out a peaceful demonstration against the single-hulled Maltese-registered oil tanker ‘Vemamagna’.

Public opinion in Spain and various other European countries is extremely sensitive to issues like this,
thanks to the ‘Prestige’ disaster, and all the more so now, thanks to the sinking of a barge carrying over a
thousand tonnes of fuel in the very waters of the bay of Algeciras on 21 January 2003.

There was considerable media coverage of the Greenpeace demonstration. Reporters from El País, El
Mundo, Tele-5, Antena 3, RTVE, Canal Sur and Associated Press were, in the course of their professional
duties, violently harassed by the Gibraltarian police and arrested (in waters which are, to say the very least,
the object of international
legal dispute), and the Tele 5 reporter was punched by the Gilbraltarian
policeman, as highlighted on the front page of El Mundo (21.1.2003).