Organic meat sold in European Union countries will not be required to come from animals stunned before slaughter.

The European Parliament’s committee on agriculture and rural development rejected a proposal yesterday to insist on pre-stunning – which is contrary to the practice of shechitah – if meat is to be labelled as “organic”.

Shimon Cohen, campaign manager of kosher meat defence group Shechita UK, said that it had “worked to alert committee members of attempts to hijack a debate about organic meat and we received extremely positive responses from many of those who then voted against the proposed amendments.”