The government will not take legal steps to ban the sale of extremely cheap meat, junior economic affairs Martijn van Dam said on Thursday.

A ban on bargain meat, as called for by Van Dam’s own party, is a last resort, Van Dam said. ‘Meat should not be thought of in the same way as a bag of crisps or bottle of cola,’ he told MPs. ‘Meat comes from animals and they should not be considered a bargain.’

Labour MPs want a ban imposed because they say the meat price war is hurting farmers and damaging efforts to improve the welfare of factory farmed animals.

Supermarkets are increasingly using cut price meat in promotional campaigns, despite pressure to phase out the worst types of factory farming, pro-animal lobby group Wakker Dier said last month.

In July, August and September the seven big Dutch supermarket groups ran 745 special offers involving cheap meat, a rise of 38% on the same period a year ago.