The UK Food Standards Agency has announced new proposals that would make it easier for consumers to see what type of meat they are getting in food.

The proposed Meat Products Regulations 2003 (MPR) will tighten controls on what counts as meat in a product and set limits on the amount of fat and gristle allowed. The Agency has proposed that the meat contents of a product is labelled as a percentage of the total ingredients, and non-meat (muscle) by-products such as fat and connective tissue are labelled.

The FSA claims that the new labelling will provide consumers with more accurate information on actual meat and fat content.

For some foods and brands, the proposals may mean changes to actual ingredients rather than just the label. Foods such as pies, sausages and burgers, for example, can be classed and labelled as such only if they contain a minimum lean amount of meat.

Some products, particularly the economy brands and products used in catering, currently use offal, such as heart, and other parts of the animal in the ingredients. These ingredients will no longer count as meat.

The tighter rules will see some products needing to increase their lean meat content in their ingredients, if they are still to be classed as a burger, pie or sausage.

The proposals are currently the subject of a 12 week consultation exercise for which more than 200 industry and consumer groups are being consulted. The Meat Product Regulations will be laid down in England after 1 January 2003, with a six-month transitional period to enable industry to make any necessary changes.

The FSA has prepared detailed guidance notes to assist businesses to comply with the new rules and to ensure their consistent enforcement across England. The notes will include a user-friendly method to help small businesses calculate the meat content of products based on the new regulations.

In developing the guidance, the Agency has worked closely with a stakeholder group, made up of consumer groups, the meat trade and retail industry, and local authority agencies.

The new proposals are in line with a new EU-wide definition of meat, being introduced in January 2003. This will mean that the rules for the labelling of meat will be the same for all EU members. The regulations are very similar to those proposed in the UK by the FSA. They will mean that only a certain percentage of connective tissue and fat can be listed as meat. Any amounts of non-muscle above the permitted level would have to be listed separately on the label.

David Statham, director of Enforcement and Food Standards at the FSA said: "The Agency has been working in Europe to encourage the introduction of improved labelling for meat products. Consumers will be able to get more accurate information from the label on how much meat a product actually contains, as well as the amount of extra fat they are getting in a food.

"As a result what the label calls meat should be exactly that. The new measures will enable consumers to make more informed choices about what they eat."

Obviously for the European food industry this is going to mean a considerable amount of upheaval and, in some cases, the added expense of re-branding products that can no longer be sold as pure meat produce.