WRITTEN QUESTION No. 3037/96 by Bárbara DÜHRKOP DÜHRKOP to the Commission. Protecting the health of UK consumers against bovine spongiform encephalopathy
Date: 1996-10-31
Institutions: DUEHRKOP DUEHRKOP, European Parliament
Subjects: United Kingdom, animal disease, beef, consumer information, consumer protection, cosmetic product, health policy, human nutrition, pharmaceutical product, public health













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91996E3037

WRITTEN QUESTION No. 3037/96 by Bárbara DÜHRKOP DÜHRKOP to the Commission. Protecting the health of UK consumers against bovine spongiform encephalopathy  


Official Journal C 091 , 20/03/1997 P. 0063 





WRITTEN QUESTION P-3037/96 by Bárbara Dührkop Dührkop (PSE) to the Commission (31 October 1996)Subject: Protecting the health of UK consumers against bovine spongiform encephalopathyUsing its powers relating to the protection of consumers' health, pursuant to Article 129a of the Treaty, the EU has adopted prophylactic measures to prevent irreparable damage caused by the marketing of products derived from UK cattle. However, these measures - basically, a ban on exports of such products to third countries - protect all EU consumers but not UK ones.Why is the Commission not providing equivalent protection for UK consumers?Does the Commission consider that the measures adopted by the UK Government are enough to protect UK consumers from the risks of consuming meat from UK cattle?Does the Commission know what the measures adopted by the UK authorities are?Answer given by Mrs Bonino on behalf of the Commission (13 January 1997)As regards British consumers, the United Kingdom, by way of precaution, took measures at a very early stage to protect the public against the possible risks of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). These measures were progressively tightened up. Thus in 1989 the UK banned the use of specified bovine offals in human food. In 1995 it extended the list of specified offals to include the whole skull. Moreover, in order to reduce the risks of contamination of meat via the spinal cord, it banned the mechanical recovery of meat from the vertebral column. Finally, in 1996 it banned the marketing of meat from cattle aged over 30 months slaughtered in the United Kingdom and its use in food or for cosmetic or pharmaceutical purposes. At the same time the United Kingdom took measures to combat BSE with the objective of eradicating it completely, this being the best way of protecting the British consumer.The Commission has closely monitored the measures taken by the United Kingdom and has encouraged the efforts that have been made. Moreover, in the field of research the Commission has been promoting cooperation between Community institutes and financed a programme for monitoring Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (CJD), which led to the identification of a new variant of this disease that has been linked to BSE. The new dialogue between the Commission and the consumer organisations, the measures taken to improve information, the research programmes adopted and the proposals currently being drafted or under discussion to ban the inclusion of specified offals from bovine, ovine and caprine animals in human and animal food and in the manufacture of cosmetic products, and to make provision for detailed and genuinely informative labelling concerning the source of meat and derived products, also concern British consumers and will help to restore their confidence in bovine products.