The British Veterinary Association (BVA) has called for products containing kosher meat to have printed labels identifying it.

Bill Reilly, veterinary public health specialist and former member of the board at the Food Standards Agency, observed that 70 per cent of kosher cattle meat is not used by the Jewish community.

Under current legislation, animals must be stunned before they are slaughtered, but an exception is made for creatures being killed for a religious community.

However, Mr Reilly noted that there are no figures at the moment that show how many abattoirs practice slaughter without stunning animals first.

It was suggested at the BVA Welfare Foundation Discussion Forum that meat should have proper printed labels outlining where the meat contained in a product comes from.

This comes after Diabetes UK, the British Heart Foundation, the Children's Food Campaign and Which? joined forces to urge government health secretary Andrew Lansley to push for encourage label printing on food to be clear and make the nutritional information easy to understand. 

Denny Bros Ltd, 03 June 2011