Look at return to MBM in pig rations
07 May 1999
‘Look at return to MBM in pig rations’
By Philip Clarke
RE-INTRODUCING meat and bonemeal to pig and poultry rations must be considered if the UK meat trade is to compete on global markets, according to abattoirs and meat processors.
The Federation of Fresh Meat Wholesalers (FFMW) believes the loss of value from the ban on meat and bonemeal is undermining the UK industrys international competitiveness.
“Most items which had a positive value now represent a very significant cost in removal and disposal,” says the federation in its annual strategy paper.
“It is vital that positive value is recovered at the earliest opportunity.”
Meat and bonemeal, animal feed made from bones and offal, was banned in the wake of the BSE crisis.
Industry estimates put the loss of offal sales, plus disposal costs, at £110 a head for cattle, equivalent to 35p/kg deadweight.
Richard Cracknell, FFMW president, said the federation would push for the production of meat and bonemeal for pig and poultry rations “even if in the first instance this is limited to export only”.
It was ironic that pig bones were banned here but could be exported and fed to pigs on the Continent which could then be imported back into the UK, he added.