WRITTEN QUESTION E-0451/03

by Dorette Corbey (PSE) to the Commission

(19 February 2003)

Subject: Use of meat and bone meal

The feeding of animal protein to farm animals is currently banned by Commission Regulation (EEC) No 1326/2001(1). This temporary ban runs out on 1 July 2003.

Can the Commission say whether it intends to extend the ban on feeding meat and bone meal from category 3 (as specified in Regulation (EEC) No 1774/2002(2)) in the case of pigs and chickens and how will this be done?

Can the Commission also indicate what scientific grounds there are for maintaining a ban on the use of category 3 meat and bone meal?

What are the consequences for the environment of the ban on the use of meat and bone meal and the associated waste problems?

What are or have been the costs of the ban on the use of category 3 meat and bone meal?

Does the Commission consider that the ban on the use of category 3 meat and bone meal for chickens and pigs should only be maintained if there are scientific reasons for assuming that lifting it would result in a risk to food safety?

(1) OJ L 177, 30.6.2001, p. 60.

(2) OJ L 273, 10.10.2002, p. 1.

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(20 March 2003)

The current ban on the use of category 3 animal by-products in feed is not due to a potential bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) risk of such by-products, but to control problems. In the absence of suitable analytical tools, it is not possible to control the origin of the meat-and-bone meal used in feed. The Commission will only consider a relaxation of the feed ban if it is scientifically justified and appropriate validated analytical methods to differentiate safe proteins from potentially contaminated proteins are available.

Also, the Commission wants to verify that the provisions of Regulation (EC) No 1774/2002 of the Parliament and of the Council of 31 October 2002 laying down health rules concerning animal by-products not intended for human consumption, including the prohibition on intra-species recycling, are correctly implemented before a relaxation of the feed ban is proposed.

The Commission is considering maintaining the current feed ban after 30 June 2003, since some of the control problems leading to the ban have not yet been solved. Rather than simply extending the current provisions it may be considered to introduce them into Regulation (EC) No 999/2001 of the Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 laying down rules for the prevention, control and eradication of certain transmissible spongiform encephalopathies(1), and to end the transitional character of the feed ban. In this way, the legal situation would become clearer.

The current main route to dispose of animal by-products is incineration or landfill. Regulation (EC) No 1774/2002, which becomes applicable on 1 May 2003, introduces alternatives for disposal or recovery of animal by-products such as bio-gas production and use as fertiliser.

The estimated Union production of animal by-products is 16,1 million tonnes of which 14,3 million tons are derived from animals fit for human consumption (category 3). Member States estimate the total costs for disposal between EUR 100 and EUR 300 per ton of animal by-product. 14,3 million tons of category 3 by-products correspond with about 3 million tons of meat-and bone meal.

(1) OJ L 147, 31.5.2001.