“Now that we have left the EU, we have an opportunity to look at food labelling – and whether the information that we give to shoppers helps them make informed choices.”
Labelling is important for the kosher trade because the hindquarters of animals slaughtered by shechitah – which rabbis consider too difficult to prepare for kosher homes - are sold on to the general market.
Mr Cohen said it was “extremely important that any label is honest and non-discriminatory, as if this was not the case it could lead to an inadvertent deception of the consumer and an affront to faith communities.
“With regards to slaughter, one dimensional labelling such as ‘stunned’ or ‘non-stunned’ would be innately pejorative and misleading to the consumer. It would advance the myth that mechanical, industrialised stunning is an all-encompassing, animal welfare panacea. It is not.”
Mechanical stunning methods all caused “pain and distress” to the animal and frequently went wrong, “leaving the animal in even greater, prolonged agony,” he said.
“ If true consumer information is the goal, then comprehensive labelling that denotes the specific method of slaughter used needs to be provided.
Two years ago, Mr Eustice backed a call for MPs to have a free vote on whether to require pre-slaughter stunning of animals – which would make shechita impossible.
He told MPs, “We often hear from representatives of organisations such as Shechita UK that the cut is so precise and clean that it all happens very quickly, but there is not really any evidence to support that.”
The consultation will provide a fresh opportunity for groups opposed to current exemptions for religious slaughter to put it under the spotlight.
The RSPCA, which wants to see pre-slaughter stunning, says that “meat produced from animals not stunned before slaughter should be clearly labelled to allow consumer choice”.
The Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation backs the British Veterinary Association’s in urging “an end to slaughter without stunning”.
The CAWF website states that “Meat from animals which have not been stunned comes onto the general market but does not have to be labelled. As a result, some consumers are unknowingly buying unstunned meat.”
Such meat, it says, should be required to be labelled “meat from unstunned animal”.
Patrons of the foundation include the Prime Minister’s wife, Carrie Johnson, Mr Eustice’s predecessor Theresa Villiers and Lord Zac Goldsmith.
When Ms Villiers, the MP for Chipping Barnet, departed as Environment Secretary, Mr Cohen noted she had been “a great friend of the community” and Shechita UK was “sorry to see her go”.
Jackie Lipowicz, chairman of the Licensed Kosher Meat Traders Association, which represents butchers, said the kosher trade had “nothing to hide. I don’t think there will be any problem – providing everyone labels the same way.
“But I don’t think other people will want to label their methods of stunning and slaughter which include drowning or gassing, therefore I don’t think it will be feasible.”
A spokesman for Kedassia, which caters for London’s Charedi community, said, “We all take this issue very seriously. We will be submitting a response to the consultation, as will other shechita authorities. We are all on the same page.”
