Red meat industry ups ante over BSE controls

Published on Monday 7 September 2009 18:58

THE Scottish red meat industry is upping the pressure to remove controls imposed during the BSE crisis.

Over the coming weeks, the industry will argue that not only do some of these requirements have no relevance in today's disease scenario but they also add unnecessary costs to beef and lamb processing.

There have been no cases of BSE in Scotland this year and only one case was recorded in 2008. And yet, there are still stringent and costly controls in place relating to the processing of sheep and cattle carcasses.

"What we have now is an obvious example of how residual controls can outweigh any potential problems. We have been pushing for a while and now it is time to raise the intensity," said Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers executive manager Ian Anderson.

This week, SAMW will take the issue to the European Federation of Meat Traders with a view to getting support across the EU.

Anderson said there were three main issues that SAMW was keen to resolve. Sheep carcasses still have to be split and the spinal cord removed if they are more than 12 months old. This requirement was introduced because of a fear that the sheep disease scrapie was related to causal organisms for CJD that could be harboured in the spinal cord. But millions of sheep carcasses have been tested without BSE having been detected.

The meat-processing industry is also currently paying for the disposal of fat removed from around the intestine of slaughtered cattle. Anderson said that SAMW had always felt this was an "ultra precautionary" move based on the possibility that it might contain lymph nodes from one small length of intestine that might be infected.

Currently this fat has to be rendered costing about 80 per tonne but if the rules were changed then it could be converted into biofuel and add to the value of the carcass.

There was also a problem with the differing ages of cattle carcasses for vertebral column removal and brain stem testing. The first requires all animals over 30 months old to be tested but the second is for cattle over 48 months old. SAMW would like to see a single age of at least 72 months before either of these requirements kick in.

Anderson has already gained support from Scottish MEPs Alyn Smith and George Lyon.

After Europe, the issue will be raised at the Food Standards Agency. Also next week, SAMW will meet rural affairs minister Richard Lochhead.