MEPs seek reassurance on tracing after UK visit
MEPs seek reassurance on tracing after UK visit
EURO-MPs, in Britain this week to inspect the countrys BSE controls, have warned that there is still a lot to be done before the beef export ban can be lifted.
The MEPs, part of the European Parliaments BSE temporary committee of enquiry, followed their visit to farm minister Jack Cunningham with a tour of a farm, abattoir, rendering plant, and meat and bonemeal store.
Although reassured that the over-30-month scheme could not be the source of recent alleged breaches of the beef ban, and impressed with the security at meat and bonemeal stores, the leader of the inspection group, German MEP Dagmar Roth-Behrendt, said there was still much to be done before the beef export ban could be lifted.
There were still some unknowns about BSE, and consumer confidence in all beef on the Continent had to be restored. "We will have to start with a certified herd scheme and there will have to be more transparency to inspire consumers trust in traceability back to the herd of origin, and confirmation that the herd has had no BSE cases.
"We are not yet convinced about the identification system for tracing back. It appears to be all right now at farm level but the national organisation needs to be computerised," she said.
After seeing OTMS carcasses stained and slashed at a Somerset abattoir, Ms Roth-Behrendt said: "I am quite convinced the beef which is stained and slashed to show it is not for human consumption will not go for human consumption."
Suspicions quashed
Danish MEP Niels Kofoed said there had been suspicion that OTMS beef was being smuggled to Europe. But, following the abattoir visit, he was convinced that was not possible.
Mr Kofoed said the decision on lifting the beef export ban was clearly a political one, not a health one. Why else could British consumers be allowed to eat their beef when it was banned from the rest of Europe, he asked.
But, bearing in mind that the new UK government appeared to be building better relationships with other EU countries than its predecessor, Mr Kofoed estimated that a phased lifting of the ban might begin in 1998.
John Corrie, one of the two UK MEPs in the party, said he hoped the visits would convince the others that the UK was doing everything possible to eradicate BSE as quickly as possible.n
Visiting Ian Forbess dairy farm in Dartington, Devon, the MEPs were shown how cattle are identified and their movements traced.