(JTA) — A European Parliament committee has approved a bill that would require meat that was not stunned before slaughter to be labeled as such.
The amendment to the new European Union food labeling bill passed the Environmental and Consumer Affairs Committee by a vote of 34 to 28. The meat would be labeled “unstunned before slaughter.”
The food information bill will come before the entire European Parliament for a second reading and vote in July. The stunning amendment had been rejected by the Parliament on the bill’s first reading last December.
Animals being slaughtered for kosher consumption cannot be pre-stunned, which goes against the laws of shechitah, or kosher slaughter. In non-kosher slaughterhouses, cattle are made unconscious, often by electric shock.
The organization Shechita UK lobbied European Parliament ministers to vote against the amendment and vow to continue. Shechita UK claims that the price of kosher meat could skyrocket because the non-kosher market, which purchases 70 percent of kosher meat, might stop buying it because of the labeling.
“The fight to stop this amendment is far from over,” insisted Henry Grunwald of Shechita UK.
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