The NFU and NPA have said new European Commission rules on food labelling may confuse shoppers keen to buy meat produced in the UK.

The Commission has opted to introduce mandatory 'reared' and 'slaughtered' labelling rules, covering an animals' later life rather than its provenance. The NFU and NPA, however, wanted labelling to extend to 'born', reared and slaughtered. The farming groups said this added labelling criteria would increase consumer confidence in the wake of the horsemeat scandal.

NFU Deputy President Meurig Raymond said the British government should "[take] a clear position to safeguard the integrity of the UK brand," adding "We are concerned about the potential to mislead consumers on the use of flags and other marketing claims on origins of meat."

NPA manager Lizzie Press claimed, "There is the potential… for the label to give the impression that a pig is wholly from the UK when it was born in another country and has spent only a proportion of its life, such as 10 weeks for a pig, in the country stated on the label."

A leaked draft proposal revealed the Commission had dropped plans for country of origin labelling 'from birth' in October; the proposals were due to extend from beef to all 'unprocessed' animal products under rules introduced after the horsemeat scandal, which rocked Europe earlier this year.

More detailed labelling had been opposed by some of the EU's meat producing organisations who had argued that lifetime-labelling would be too complicated and expensive.

Consumer Affairs Commissioner Tonio Borg has said he is sceptical of country of origin labelling, as the horsemeat scandal was a mislabelling issue. The scandal involved horsemeat being passed off as more prestigious meat, beef, revealing systemic problems in the meat supply chain that were not restricted to a single country.

However, consumers' groups had been clear in their demands for full labelling, which now appears unlikely in spite of the appeals of pro-labelling MEPs and organisations.