EU to Consider Easing Mad Cow Disease Food Rules
Date: 21-Jun-05
Country: BELGIUM
Spinal cord and brain tissue in cattle carry the highest risk of passing on mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).
They have been removed from 12-month-old cattle in the EU since 2000 to control the spread of the deadly brain-wasting disorder.
EU Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner Markos Kyprianou wants to review the policy, which has kept some cuts of meat off dinner tables across Europe.
"It's been a long time since very strict measures were taken," he told a European Parliament committee, adding that the 12-month age limit would be the first issue to be studied.
"We may decide to keep them (measures) as they are...(we) could decide to relax them a bit. It's time to have a roadmap...on how to proceed."
The plan could be published before August, said officials.
The EU's food safety agency (EFSA) reviewed the 12-month age limit last month and said it could be raised to 21 months as only four BSE cases under the age of 35 months had been reported since 2001.
The minimum age of animals found with the disease had risen from 28 to 42 months over the 2001-04 period, it added.
EFSA said there would be a risk of BSE infection if the age limit for removing spinal cord and brain tissue was raised to 30 months.
Europe's outbreaks of BSE caused panic in the 1980s and 1990s.
More than 100 people have died from the human form of BSE after eating tainted meat.
BSE was caused by feeding cattle with infected parts of other cattle.
The EU banned animal parts from animal feed and also tightened food safety laws to limit what parts of cattle can enter the food chain.
