BSE controls explained: Main controls on production

Since the late 1980s, the Government has introduced and strengthened controls to reduce the risk of people eating beef or meat products that might be infected with BSE.

The controls are based on current scientific knowledge and are designed to reduce the risk to an extremely low level, although the risk to consumers from BSE cannot be removed completely.

A key job for the Food Standards Agency is to make sure that these controls are working effectively.

BSE testing and the removal of SRM are the two controls that keep potentially infected material out of the human food chain. The ban on feeding animal protein to farm animals prevents them from being exposed to BSE and therefore reduces the incidence or number of new cases. Cattle born or reared in the UK before August 1996, when a reinforced feed ban was introduced, are permanently excluded from the food chain.

In addition to these controls, cattle with BSE or suspected of having BSE and the offspring and cohorts of BSE cases are removed from the food chain.

SRM is the parts of cattle, and sheep and goats most likely to carry BSE. SRM must be removed when an animal is slaughtered. SRM must be disposed of and does not go into our food or animal feed. In cattle, the SRM controls are estimated to remove almost all potential infectivity in the unlikely event of an animal infected with BSE but not yet showing any clinical signs being slaughtered for human consumption.

The Community TSE Regulation defines specified risk material as follows;

In addition

• if SRM is not removed, the entire carcase of a dead animal, even if it has not been slaughtered for food, must be treated as SRM.
• any material still attached to SRM after dissection of the carcase and any animal matter which comes into contact with that material or with SRM after it has been removed from the carcase will itself be regarded as SRM.

Animal feed containing meat and bone meal (MBM) is thought to have been responsible for the spread of BSE among cattle. A ban on the feeding of MBM to ruminants was introduced in the UK in 1988. In August 1996 this was extended to cover the feeding of MBM to all farm animals. EU Regulations now prohibit (with certain exceptions) the use of processed animal protein in feed to all livestock.
The following controls are in force across Europe

● a prohibition on the use of mammalian protein in feed to ruminant animals.

● a prohibition on the incorporation of mammalian meat and bone meal (MMBM) in any farmed livestock feed.

● a ban, except in tightly defined circumstances, on having MMBM material on premises where livestock feed is used, produced or stored.

Cattle aged over 48 months (O48M) must test negative for BSE before being allowed into our food if born in one of the following EU Member States:

Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Cattle born in any other country must be tested if aged over 30 months.

In the past, products such as low-cost burgers, sausages, pies and mince included mechanically separated meat (MSM). This is meat that is stripped from the bone by mechanical means at high pressure. In the mid-1990s the Government banned the use of the vertebral column, or backbone, of cattle in MSM. The production of MSM from all ruminant bones and bone-in cuts is now prohibited throughout the EU.

The Commission is responsible for ensuring that Member States comply with the EU Regulation 999/2001 (as amended). The Food and Veterinary Office (FVO) of the Commission, operates a rolling programme of inspection within member states to ensure compliance with the EU requirements.