The committee adopted the report by Horst SCHNELLHARDT (EPP-ED, D) broadly approving the proposal under the codecision procedure (1st reading), subject to a large number of amendments aimed mainly at ensuring consistency and clarity. The committee wanted to move many of the arrangements laid down in the annexes into the body of the text and hence to convert them into articles, covering inter alia the definitions laid down in the regulation, the registration and approval of establishments, the marking of meat, special arrangements and additional guarantees. The committee argued that these arrangements should be removed from the provisions that the Commission can alter under the commitology procedure.
Some amendments were also designed to bring the proposed regulation into line with the text of the regulation laying down the general principles and requirements of food law, establishing the European Food Authority and laying down procedures in matters of food safety.
The committee also made a number of amendments to the annexes. It wanted the definition of meat to include blood, arguing that blood is a common ingredient in foodstuffs. With regard to the arrangements relating to game, it proposed splitting these into two separate chapters of the annexes, dealing with large and small wild game respectively, in order to simplify matters. It also felt that wild game meat should be subject to the same safety requirements as other meat and therefore demanded that hunted animals which are to be sold or marketed should undergo an inspection laid down by the competent authority as soon as possible after killing and in any event before their meat is placed on the market. �