Belgian food scare prompts action on MBM
15 June 1999
Belgian food scare prompts action on MBM
by FWi staff
RULES on animal feed ingredients are to be reviewed
after European agriculture ministers agreed to consider calls for a
ban on meat and bonemeal.
Ministers meeting in Luxembourg yesterday (Monday) unanimously supported
requests for an investigation into the legislation governing the
products allowed in animal feed.
The move was prompted by the Belgian food scare, which swept Europe
after animal feed was contaminated with the cancer-causing chemical
dioxin.
The Belgian government was severely criticised over the scandal
after it emerged that ministers suppressed details of the dioxin
contamination for a month.
High-ranking Belgian officials knew of the feed contamination in
April but kept it quiet until late May – by which time the problem had
dramatically escalated.
A special team of scientists will now examine possible methods of
tightening up the regulations governing animal feed ingredients, which
include meat and bone meal.
This is the second time that the practice of feeding meat and bone
meal to animals has been singled out for criticism following a major
European food scare.
The inclusion of meat and bonemeal, made from ground-down animal
remains, was blamed for the rapid spread of BSE in Britain in the
early ’90s.
Europe-wide restrictions in the wake of the BSE crisis banned the
use of mammalian meat and bonemeal from animal feed for cattle, sheep
and goats.
The UK unilaterally extended that ban to cover all farmed
livestock, but Continental farmers can still legitimately use meat and
bonemeal for pigs and poultry.
The committee of scientists will now consider extending the ban on
meat and bonemeal to prohibit its use in any kind of animal feed.
The scientists are expected to report their findings before the end
of the year.
They will also examine the possibility of extending the role of the
EU food and veterinary office and setting up an independent body to
monitor the feed sector.
Representatives of European feed manufacturers yesterday conceded
that tighter regulations now seem inevitable after the Belgian dioxin
scare.
But some countries, such as Germany, say a complete ban on meat and
bone meal would be an over-reaction.
France, however, has led calls for the product to be outlawed,
threatening a unilateral ban unless action is taken across Europe
before the year end.