Country of origin labelling for pork

Fresh, chilled and frozen pork prepacked for the final consumer or for mass caterers in the EU must carry two statements: "Reared in: [country]" and "Slaughtered in: [country]". A single "Origin: [country]" claim is allowed only where the animal was born, reared and slaughtered in the same country — and that is not the test used for customs origin.

What is in scope

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1337/2013 implements the origin-labelling requirement in Article 26(2)(b) of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, the Food Information to Consumers Regulation. Article 1 fixes the scope: fresh, chilled and frozen meat of swine, sheep or goats and poultry falling within the CN codes listed in Annex XI to that Regulation — for pork, CN heading 0203, in any form of cut, minced meat included. It has applied since 1 April 2015.

Three boundaries matter commercially:

• Beef is not covered. It runs under the separate regime in Title II of Regulation (EC) No 1760/2000.
• Processed products are not covered. Cured hams, cooked meats and sausages fall outside 1337/2013; their origin information is governed by Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, including Article 26(3) on the origin of the primary ingredient.
• Loose meat is outside the mandatory format. The obligation attaches to prepacked meat; the Commission's evaluation of the regime records that meat sold loose at retail and packed at the consumer's request fell outside it. Member States may legislate further.

Edible offal and pig fat fall outside heading 0203 and so outside the Annex XI list; the two-statement format is not mandatory for them.

The two mandatory statements

Article 5(1) requires the label to bear the Member State or third country of rearing and of slaughter, plus the batch code identifying the meat supplied to the consumer or mass caterer.

Which country counts as "Reared in" for pigs

Article 5(1)(a)(i) sets the rearing country by a residence test tied to age and weight at slaughter:

These are residence tests, not birth tests: a piglet born in one Member State and finished for five months in another is labelled as reared in the finishing country. Country of birth appears nowhere in the format.

Where no single country meets the threshold

The replacement wordings are prescribed, not illustrative — copy them exactly. Where the rearing period is not attained in any single country, the statement becomes "Reared in: several Member States of the EU" or, where the meat or animals were imported into the Union, "Reared in: several non-EU countries" or "Reared in: several EU and non-EU countries". The operator may instead use "Reared in: (list of the Member States or third countries where the animal was reared)" on proof to the satisfaction of the competent authority.

Article 6 covers imported meat for which the rearing information is not available: the label carries "Reared in: non-EU" with "Slaughtered in: (name of the third country where the animal was slaughtered)".

When "Origin: [country]" may be used

Under Article 5(2) the two statements may be replaced by "Origin: [country]" only where the food business operator proves, to the satisfaction of the competent authority, that the meat came from animals born, reared and slaughtered in one single Member State or third country. Birth is the element the two-line format never asks for, so it depends on traceability back to the holding of birth, not on the slaughterhouse record alone. It is an evidential question.

Minced meat and trimmings

Article 7 gives minced meat and trimmings their own derogation — again a closed list, of five indications:

• "Origin: EU": animals born, reared and slaughtered in different Member States;
• "Reared and slaughtered in: EU": animals reared and slaughtered in different Member States;
• "Reared and slaughtered in: non-EU": meat imported into the Union;
• "Reared in: non-EU" and "Slaughtered in: EU": animals imported into the Union for slaughter;
• "Reared and slaughtered in: EU and non-EU": Union material mixed with imported material.

It changes what a trimmings supplier can be asked to state, and what the processor can pass on.

Batch identification and what it constrains

Article 3 requires an identification and registration system at every stage, linking the meat to the animal or group of animals it came from and passing the labelling information on with it. Whoever packs or labels correlates the batch code with the batches behind it. Article 4 caps the batch at one day's production in a single establishment, and every carcase in it must carry the same labelling indications.

The constraint falls on the cutting room, not the label printer: a boning run mixing carcases with different rearing outcomes cannot form one batch carrying a country-specific "Reared in" statement. Either segregate by origin category, or drop to the aggregate wording.

Label origin is not customs origin

Three regimes answer three questions, and can give different answers for the same consignment.

Under Article 60 of the Union Customs Code, goods wholly obtained in a single country originate there; otherwise origin follows the last substantial transformation. Neither limb turns on the four-month rearing threshold, so customs origin is established on its own facts.

One further trap: the oval identification mark under Annex II, Section I of Regulation (EC) No 853/2004 shows the country and approval number of the establishment, with a new mark applied wherever the product is further processed. It identifies the plant, not the animal's origin.

What this means for your order

• Ask which format the buyer needs. The two-line format is the default; "Origin: [country]" is a narrower claim needing birth-to-slaughter evidence, so ask what the supplier can evidence rather than what it can print.
• Copy the prescribed strings exactly. They are closed lists; a near-miss on artwork is a non-compliant label.
• Check the CN heading per line item. Offal and fat sit outside the mandatory format.
• Keep label wording out of the customs paperwork, and confirm destination marking rules separately: outside the EU, importing countries set their own.