The scheme marking out Northern Ireland produce as a distinct brand is expected to be launched later this month. The 'country of origin' programme will be a voluntary initiative by the main players in Northern Ireland's agri-food industry.

However, farmers in Ulster have expressed disappointment that no compulsory Europe-wide country of origin scheme was announced when the European Commission outlined plans to overhaul food labelling rules.

Under the new rules, all foods containing allergens such as peanuts, milk, mustard or fish will have to be labelled, even those served in restaurants - at present, the allergen labelling requirement only applies to pre-packed food.

Pre-packaged food will have to display key nutritional information clearly on the front of the package, under the proposals announced in Brussels on Wednesday by EU Commissioner for Health, Markos Kyprianou. From now on, alcopops will also have to feature an ingredients list.

However, the Commissioner stopped short of introducing compulsory country of origin labelling, although he listed a series of rules for producers who voluntarily list the place of provenance on their labels. Country of origin of the main ingredient and the finished product must be made clear in such a case.

"Producers may, if they wish to, put a 'made in the EU' label on their foodstuffs, provided the food was made in the EU. This is if they want to demonstrate that the product meets with the strict level of standards from the EU.

"If there are multiple ingredients from different member states, it can be difficult to include origin labelling, so they can use this if they like," he said.

Joe McDonald of the Ulster Farmers Union said it was disappointing that compulsory country of origin labelling hadn't been included but said the food industry in Ulster is about to launch a voluntary scheme.

"We would believe that country of origin is a helpful additional piece of information to help shoppers make informed choices when they are purchasing food and it's disappointing that the Commission haven't taken that step," he said.

"We believe there is a growing interest in products that are from Northern Ireland because of their freshness and low carbon footprint but if people aren't able to identify the country of origin accurately, they are not able to make that informed choice."