The National Secular Society (NSS) has expressed strong criticism toward the UK Government, accusing it of creating major obstacles to the implementation of mandatory labelling for meat produced from animals slaughtered without stunning for religious reasons.<\/span><\/p>\n In its response to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)\u2019s consultation titled <\/span>\u201cFairer Food Labelling\u201d<\/span><\/i>, the NSS voiced \u201ctremendous disappointment,\u201d highlighting that the consultation excludes information about slaughter methods despite Defra\u2019s own research showing overwhelming public support for such labels.<\/span><\/p>\n The consultation aims to enhance \u201ctransparency\u201d in food labelling, but it does not address whether animals were stunned before slaughter. Under UK animal welfare laws, animals must be stunned prior to slaughter to minimize suffering. However, exemptions for Jewish and Muslim communities permit slaughter without stunning to meet kosher and halal requirements.<\/span><\/p>\n Although experts widely agree that non-stun slaughter causes unnecessary pain, current legislation does not require products from such methods to be labelled accordingly.<\/span><\/p>\n The NSS criticised Defra\u2019s claim that existing laws already ensure animal welfare during slaughter, calling this argument dismissive of the millions of animals killed annually without stunning for halal and kosher meat.<\/span><\/p>\n According to the NSS, multiple surveys \u2014 including Defra\u2019s own \u2014 have repeatedly shown strong public support for clear labelling of products derived from non-stun slaughter.<\/span><\/p>\n The ongoing consultation only covers poultry and pigs. While pigs cannot be slaughtered without stunning under any circumstances, chickens are often slaughtered without stunning for religious purposes. Defra\u2019s figures indicate that more than 16 million chickens are killed this way each year.<\/span><\/p>\n The department suggested that labelling for cattle and sheep meat would be considered later, only if the initial proposals for poultry and pigs are deemed successful. The NSS argued this approach sets up \u201csignificant barriers\u201d to broader implementation and could delay labelling reform for years \u2014 or prevent it entirely.<\/span><\/p>\n The NSS also drew attention to the scale of unlabelled meat from religious slaughter entering the general market. Defra\u2019s data indicates that more than half of the cattle slaughtered for kosher meat are rejected for not meeting religious standards but are still sold as regular meat, without labels indicating the slaughter method.<\/span><\/p>\n The organisation said this situation could be \u201cpotentially unlawful,\u201d given that government guidance specifies that meat from animals slaughtered without stunning should be \u201cintended for consumption by Jewish or Muslim people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Megan Manson, NSS Head of Campaigns, accused Defra of ignoring consumer expectations. She stated that most consumers want transparency regarding whether the meat they eat comes from animals slaughtered ethically.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cNo animal should suffer unnecessary cruelty to satisfy religious demands.\u00a0If non-stun slaughter remains legal for halal and kosher production, meat from those animals must be clearly labelled,\u201d Manson said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The NSS urged Defra to initiate a separate consultation focusing on animal welfare labelling that explicitly includes all species and mandates clear identification of meat from animals slaughtered without stunning.<\/span><\/p>\n Original Article:<\/b><\/p>\n National Secular Society. (2025, October 7). <\/span>NSS: Government putting up \u201cbarriers\u201d to non-stun slaughter labels.<\/span><\/i>Retrieved from https:\/\/www.secularism.org.uk\/news\/2024\/04\/nss-government-putting-up-barriers-to-non-stun-slaughter-labels<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" National Secular Society Condemns Defra\u2019s \u201cFairer Food Labelling\u201d Consultation The National Secular Society (N […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":5227,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1],"tags":[3265,3262,2857,3263,3264],"class_list":["post-5226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","category-uncategorized","tag-consumer-transparency","tag-food-labelling","tag-non-stun-slaughter","tag-religious-slaughter","tag-uk-policy","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/souqtimes.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/souqtimes.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/souqtimes.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/souqtimes.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/souqtimes.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5226"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/souqtimes.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5228,"href":"https:\/\/souqtimes.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5226\/revisions\/5228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/souqtimes.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/souqtimes.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/souqtimes.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/souqtimes.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}NSS Says Consultation \u201cIgnores\u201d Core Animal Welfare Issues<\/b><\/h2>\n
Unlabelled Meat from Religious Slaughter \u201cMisleading Consumers\u201d<\/b><\/h2>\n
Call for Separate Consultation on Animal Welfare Labelling<\/b><\/h2>\n
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