Top European scientists have warned that new restrictions on the use of bovine tissues and other animal by-products may be necessary if further BSE risk is to be avoided. The Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) which advises the European Commission, says that mechanically recovered meat scraped from bovine bones is to be considered a risk material if obtained from skull and vertebral bones of animals more than 12 months old.
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The SSC also warns that fats derived from cattle tissues should be subject to pressure cooking to minimise potential BSE infectivity before being used in animal feed, in addition to the purification process already in place. According to the SSC, cattle born before the effective implementation of the total meat and bone meal ban, or born while such a ban was not properly implemented, “are likely to pose a higher risk, which could justify further restrictions on the use of animal tissues.”
Further action depended on how likely it was that cattle were infected with BSE. The SSC said that under the conditions of the UK Date-Based Export Scheme it was highly unlikely that an animal under 30 months that was incubating BSE would enter the food chain. The Commission said it would draw its own conclusions from the report shortly.
By Alan Osborn, just-food.com correspondent
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