The government is courting antagonism from orthodox Jews and Muslims after a report from its animal welfare advisers that could lead to a ban on kosher and halal meat.
A meeting between the Farm Animal Welfare Council and Jewish groups at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs this week ended in uproar as the delegation walked out after being told the council would recommend banning the slaughter of animals without prior stunning.
Orthodox communities from both religions believe that animal meat is not acceptable to eat unless it has been killed in a prescribed manner while the livestock is conscious.
In the case of Jews, the principle of shechita means the animal must be killed by a qualified butcher as swiftly and painlessly as possible by cutting horizontally across the throat in an uninterrupted manner.
For Muslims similar rules apply for meat to be regarded as halal, or permitted, with the beast being killed by cutting through the jugular vein in the throat while intoning the name of Allah.
The principle that the animal should be rendered unconscious before slaughter, as the council wants, would apparently infringe both religious codes.
Geoffrey Alderman, political director of the campaign for the protection of shechita, who was at the meeting, said: "This has been a long-running campaign by the Farm Animal Welfare Council.
"The recommendation is completely unacceptable because of the complicated rules we have related to the health of the animal at the time of slaughter. It takes at least seven years to train a Jewish slaughterman. Presumably we would have to get kosher meat imported from abroad in future."
A Defra spokeswoman said: "Obviously nothing has been finalised. The report will go to ministers in May." She said the agriculture minister, Elliot Morley, would be sensitive to religious representations.