BSE

Citation

Stephen Fallows, D. (2001), "BSE", Nutrition & Food Science, Vol. 31 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/nfs.2001.01731bag.002

BSE

BSE

As has been seen over the past months, BSE continues to be a major topic of interest. The following sites give some recent information.

Tabulation of European Union legislation

The European Commission has produced (and appears to be keeping updated) a table which provides a chronological summary of the many items of EU legislation introduced since 1989 which relate to control of BSE within the EU.

For each item of legislation, the table provides the official reference code and date of publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities (L series) together with a brief statement of the purpose of the legislative instrument.

The URL is http://europa.eu.int/comm/food/fs/bse/bse15_en.pdf

Safety of imported meats

The Food Standards Agency has published a short briefing paper that summarises the official UK position with respect to the (BSE-related) food safety matters concerned with imported meat and processed meats. A key concern addressed in the advice concerns whether (or otherwise) the meat conforms to the UK requirement that beef should only be derived from animals aged under 30 months.

The URL is http://www.foodstandards.gov.uk/bsepolicy.htm

Review of UK BSE controls

The Food Standards Agency has undertaken a thorough review of current controls relating to BSE.

The full text of the report is now available (in either Adobe Acrobat or Microsoft Word format) at the following URL: http://www.bsereview.org.uk/data/report.htm

An executive summary report is available at the following URL: http://www.bsereview.org.uk/data/final/execsumf.htm

The report concludes that, in view of the continuing scientific uncertainty regarding several aspects relating to BSE and links to variant CJD, the current controls are appropriate and should be continued.

The principal control measures include:

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  The over 30 month rule – which prohibits sale of beef from cattle aged over 30 months.

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  Measures relating to specified risk materials (SRM); these are the tissues deemed most likely to contain an infective agent. Specific controls require removal of these tissues at slaughter and disposal in a controlled manner.

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  Feed ban – this is concerned with the prevention of potentially infectious material being utilised in the production and manufacture of feeds for farmed livestock.

Additional concerns relate to the following:

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  Private kills by farmers for their own consumption.

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  Mechanically recovered meat.

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  Imports.

The report also considered:

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  costs of current controls;

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  recommendations for further research;

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  various European Union issues.

Question and answer briefing

The Food Standards Agency has provided a document that gives answers to a series of common questions relating to BSE controls. The document was prepared primarily for staff of the food law enforcement authorities but has relevance to other interested parties.

The URL is: http://www.foodstandards.gov.uk/industry/q_a.htm

The European Commission has also produced a question and answer briefing on BSE. The URL is: http://europa.eu.int/comm/food/fs/bse/bse20_en.html