The threat to shechitah in the EU abated this week after MEPs approved food labelling policies without demanding the compulsory identification of meat produced by ritual slaughter.

MEPs also suggested a future study on "the stunning of animals" to help frame animal welfare policy.

The wording may be significant in that it suggests a focus on stunning methods as a whole rather than, as previously, on animals which are not stunned before slaughter.

Shechitah activists have argued that industrial stunning methods such as electrocution often fail, causing pain to the animal.