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Mad Cow Measures Inadequate, Inspectors Charge

December 23, 2004
Public Citizen is joining federal food inspectors in calling for stricter enforcement of Mad Cow (BSE) safety measures in U.S. facilities.

In a letter to Dr. Merle Pierson, acting under secretary for food safety at the USDA, Public Citizen urged the agency to pay closer attention to BSE-related enforcement concerns in meat plants.

The consumer group pointed to a recent letter from the chairman of the National Joint Council of Food Inspection Locals, the union which represents federal government meat inspectors. The NJC letter detailed reports by inspectors that they have limited ability to enforce current BSE-related regulations.

Both letters focus on specific concerns related to specified risk materials (SRMs), the nervous system tissues believed to be most likely to carry the infectious prions that cause BSE.

The USDA's policies regarding the removal of SRMs from human food has been widely promoted by the agency as an important public health protection.

The most serious complaints from inspectors are:

• Plant employees are not correctly identifying and marking all heads and carcasses of animals over 30 months old, resulting in errors in SRM removal down the line. (Many of the rules governing what materials must be removed from human food are dependent on the age of the animal, with 30 months as the dividing line.)

• Inspectors are not authorized to take action in plants producing beef for export when they see plant employees failing to meet the standards required by other governments.

"These reports from government inspectors, whose job it is to prevent unsafe meat from entering the human food supply, are extremely disturbing," the letter notes.

The group called on the agency to instruct government inspectors to examine each head to ensure that plant personnel are correctly determining the age of cattle, and that written instructions are given to inspectors enabling them to take action regarding any violation of export requirements.

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