Halal and kosher meat could be labelled to include the method of slaughter post-Brexit amid an ongoing row over animal cruelty.
Under Islamic and Jewish laws, animals such as cows, sheep and chicken are not stunned before death to ensure the meat is halal or kosher, respectively.
A number of industry bodies have spoken out against the slaughtering of animals without pre-stunning, with many vets claiming the method as cruel.
Farming minister George Eustice said the Government will consider introducing labelling after Brexit so shoppers can make an ‘informed choice’ when buying meat.
Under Islamic and Jewish laws, animals such as cows, sheep and chicken are not stunned before death to ensure the meat is halal or kosher, respectively
He told the Daily Telegraph: ‘The Government believes that consumers should have the necessary information available to them.
‘This is something we can consider in the context of leaving the EU.’
In conventional slaughterhouses, animals are given an electric shock to ensure they are unconscious before their throats are cut, minimising suffering.
However many in the Muslim and Jewish faith claim that stunning is also inhumane and that when an animal is slaughtered properly, it immediately becomes unconscious and dies within seconds.
Animals must also be stunned before slaughter under European Union regulations.
However Britain allows an exemption for those who oppose because of religious beliefs and the number of animals killed without stunning appears to be on the rise.
Some 2.4 million sheep and goats were put to death using the religious method in halal and kosher abattoirs in 2013 – a rise of 60 per cent on 2011.
Many in the Muslim and Jewish faith claim that stunning is also inhumane and that when an animal is slaughtered properly, it immediately becomes unconscious and dies within seconds
According to analysis by the Food Standards Agency, some 37 per cent of sheep and goats, 25 per cent of cattle and 16 per cent of poultry were killed in this way in halal premises.
Researchers from the University of Bristol School of Veterinary Science questioned Islamic scholars and Halal consumers on the use of pre-slaughter stunning.
The study was published in the journal Meat Science in 2016.
Some 69 per cent of scholars said they did not agree that stunning prior to slaughter had been showed to reduce the pain felt by animals, according to The Times.
However more than 95 per cent of the scholars and 53 per cent of consumers agreed that if stunning did not result in death, cause physical injury or obstruct bleed-out, the meat would be considered Halal.