While the marketing practice is allowed under EU rules, it is putting Ulster poultry farmers who produce genuinely fresh meat at a serious competitive disadvantage, he told colleagues on the European Parliament's agriculture committee this week.

The criticism came as both Mr Allister and his Ulster Unionist counterpart Jim Nicholson questioned Iztok Jarc, president of the EU Council for Agriculture and Fisheries, on a series of EU agriculture policies.

Mr Allister told the Slovenian agriculture minister: "One of the most irksome things for poultry producers is that under marketing rules frozen poultry can be sold as fresh when it is not fresh.

"We have a situation where frozen poultry is imported to the EU, defrosted and sold as fresh ? which puts poultry processors in the EU who can sell fresh under intense pressure. We need to redefine the meaning of fresh," he said.

Source: BelfastTelegraph