New ideas to reduce the risks of BSE

Date: 15/05/1997

THE European Commission is to call on member states to give a more positive response to new anti-BSE proposals than they have in the past.

Food Safety Commissioner Emma Bonino and Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler this week launched a number of ideas aimed at reducing still further the risk of BSE being passed on to humans.

In a three-pronged approach outlined at yesterday's (14 May) full Commission meeting, they called for a ban on the use of 'specified risk materials' (SRMs) in human and animal food, tighter controls on the production of gelatine, and the immediate implementation of new processing standards for meat and bone meal.

But the Commission's plans are not guaranteed an easy passage through the decision-making process. Fischler's last attempt to ban the use of SRMs (the heads and spinal cords of sheep, goats and cattle) was rejected by a majority of member states.

The fresh impetus for action arises from recent Commission inspections across the Union, which “suggest that the presence of scrapie and/or BSE cannot be excluded in any member state”.

The initiative comes as new UK Farm Minister Jack Cunningham is promising Fischler a more cooperative stance on the question of the ban on British beef exports.