Meat processors welcome relaxed cattle controls

Britain’s meat processors have welcomed European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) recommendations to relax controls on cattle for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) following a dramatic decline in the epidemic.

The British Meat Processors Association (BMPA) has urged the European Commission to embrace the recommendations of EFSA’s Biological Hazards Panel, which propose an increase in the testing age of cattle. The Panel said the age limit of 48 months for testing cattle would pick up the majority of cases of BSE.

The Panel claimed that if the age for testing for BSE increased from the present 30 months (24 months for cattle ‘at risk’) to 36 or 48 months of age for slaughtered cattle, less than one BSE case in cattle could be expected to be missed annually in the first 15 EU member states [EU 15]. However, it added that testing at 24 months for cattle ‘at risk’ would provide an increased sensitivity in detecting a possible re-emergence of BSE.

EFSA’s chairman professor Patrick Wall had previously claimed that there were good scientific reasons for a relaxation of BSE controls​.

BMPA director Stuart Roberts said: “Food safety is everyone’s top priority yet everyone in the industry knows that a good deal of control measures are poorly targeted. We remain overburdened by a long and costly legislative hangover because of BSE and it’s difficult not to feel optimistic about the prospect of a significant change in the testing limit, and we now have a strong scientific base for change.

Roberts added: “Such a move could immediately deliver benefits to industry, government and the consumer at a time when the cost of food is already influencing the weekly shop … We are still only at the tip of the iceberg when it comes to reforming the meat hygiene regime and we are calling on officials in the UK and Brussels to act quickly on the opinions provided by the Panel.”

BSE has been in steep decline since 2001. Although the number of BSE cases detected in cattle in the EU 15 fell from 2,164 in 2001 to 149 in 2007, around 10M cattle are still tested each year for the disease.

Britain’s primary meat processors are, however, far less than happy about the decision last week by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) Board to pass on increased costs of inspections at UK abattoirs.

The FSA Board recommended the introduction of a time-based charging system for inspections carried out by its Meat Hygiene Service. This would replace the current charging arrangements, where most meat plant operators are charged a flat rate based on throughput.

The Board also approved a reduction in current subsidies, which would result in hygiene charges paid by operators increasing by 12% by 2009/10 and the introduction of new charges for controls on the removal of ‘specified risk material’ - parts of animals, such as the spinal column, associated with higher BSE transfer risk - from 2009/10. In the first year of charging this would recover 5% of the costs of these controls - approximately £500,000.