BSE rules breached
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UNITED KINGDOM: Over thirty-month-old heifer untested for BSE enters the food chain.
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The British Food Standards Agency has launched an investigation into how an Over Thirty Month (OTM) heifer entered the food chain without being tested for BSE.
Testing of all cattle that are over thirty months at slaughter is mandatory if they are intended for human consumption.
The heifer had its specified risk material removed – those parts of the animal that would contain more than 99 percent of any infectivity that would be present if the animal had BSE.
Because of this, the FSA says that any risk to human health from this heifer would be extremely low.
The majority of the meat from the animal, which was slaughtered on November 30 at the ABP abattoir in Shrewsbury in England, was sold fresh to catering suppliers, with the remainder going for sale in retail packs.
The FSA said that all of the meat will have passed its use-by date, even if frozen by the consumer.
A full investigation, with the cooperation of ABP Shrewsbury, into the circumstances of this incident is underway.
Since the OTM BSE testing regime came into force in November 2005, about 400,000 OTM cattle have been slaughtered in the UK for human consumption.
This is the third occasion the FSA is aware of when an OTM bovine has entered the food chain untested.
January 25, 2007
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UNITED KINGDOM: Over thirty-month-old heifer untested for BSE enters the food chain.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The British Food Standards Agency has launched an investigation into how an Over Thirty Month (OTM) heifer entered the food chain without being tested for BSE.
Testing of all cattle that are over thirty months at slaughter is mandatory if they are intended for human consumption.
The heifer had its specified risk material removed – those parts of the animal that would contain more than 99 percent of any infectivity that would be present if the animal had BSE.
Because of this, the FSA says that any risk to human health from this heifer would be extremely low.
The majority of the meat from the animal, which was slaughtered on November 30 at the ABP abattoir in Shrewsbury in England, was sold fresh to catering suppliers, with the remainder going for sale in retail packs.
The FSA said that all of the meat will have passed its use-by date, even if frozen by the consumer.
A full investigation, with the cooperation of ABP Shrewsbury, into the circumstances of this incident is underway.
Since the OTM BSE testing regime came into force in November 2005, about 400,000 OTM cattle have been slaughtered in the UK for human consumption.
This is the third occasion the FSA is aware of when an OTM bovine has entered the food chain untested.
January 25, 2007