Gummer on menu at BSE Inquiry

08 December 1998

Gummer on menu at BSE Inquiry

By FWi staff

JOHN GUMMER, the former agriculture minister who famously fed his daughter a burger to show beef was safe to eat, is giving evidence to the BSE Inquiry today (Tuesday).

In a written statement to the inquiry, Mr Gummer says he would not have told the public that beef was safe unless he had eaten it himself or fed it to his children

In 1990, Mr Gummer fed his six-year-old daughter Cordelia a burger in front of reporters in a bid to reassure the public about the safety of beef.

The first victim of Creutzfeldt Jakob disease, the human form of BSE, died five years later.

The former minister claims he was forced to reduce the estimated cost of the BSE crisis, although he stressed the public health implications to the Treasury.

He says his first loyalty was always to the consumer.