Different countries, different declaration obligations

The Ordinance on the Declaration of Agricultural Products (AgDO) determines how products imported into Switzerland must be labelled if they were produced using methods that are forbidden in Switzerland. In our case, we have to declare whether non-hormonal and hormonal growth promoters were used in the production of the meat. According to the law, all meat coming from countries where there are no equivalent statutory production prohibitions must be declared. 

For Australian beef, for example, this means that meat from beef raised without using hormonal and non-hormonal growth promoters may be sold under this description in Australian supermarkets and butcheries. When the beef is imported into Switzerland, however, the lack of equivalent legislation in Australia means that labels must indicate that the meat "may contain" these growth promoters. Meat that must be declared as being produced using hormones is also included in the Federal import statistics as "hormone-treated meat". Our experts will be happy to explain the declaration obligation in detail.