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EDITORIAL: Easing testing for BSE
03/30/2005
Many hurdles remain for U.S. beef imports.
The government seems poised to ease its blanket testing of all cattle for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), the world's toughest controls against mad cow disease.
An expert panel under the government's Food Safety Commission has concluded that exempting cows 20 months old or younger from testing will not significantly increase health risks for consumers.
The current anti-BSE system based on the blanket-testing approach has been in place since Japan's first discovery of a BSE-infected cow in autumn 2001. During the three and a half years since then, the number of infected animals has not shown any worrisome increase, while new safety measures have been adopted. The panel's conclusion can be regarded as a reasonable one.
But the proposed review of the testing system should not immediately lead to the lifting of the ban on U.S. beef imports. There are a host of problems that must be sorted out before the Japanese market can be safely opened again to beef from the United States, where meat safety standards are far less rigorous than in Japan.
Despite the beef panel's judgment, most local governments plan to continue testing all domestic cattle for the time being, ensuring that untested beef will not enter the supply chain in Japan anytime soon.
The expert panel debated the appropriateness of easing the testing program on the basis of evaluation of the safety steps that have been taken so far..
Even blanket testing is unlikely to discover BSE in very young animals because the amount of prions-a misshapen protein believed to cause the degenerative brain disorder-is too small to detect in such early stages of infection. The risk of human infection from such young cows is very low. There was general consensus among panel members on these points.
But prions cannot be destroyed easily by ordinary heating. And there are still many questions about BSE that remain unanswered, such as what prion amount poses a serious health hazard. Some panel members warned that the data currently available are insufficient for warranting an easing of the testing policy.
The panel gave the green light to modifying the testing method on certain conditions. In order to secure beef safety, the panel says, regulations on cattle feed, especially imported feed, should be tightened to prevent prions from finding their way into the food chain.
Measures should also be taken to ensure that brains, spinal cords and other dangerous body parts will be eliminated completely from beef sold on the market.
The easing of the controls is not enough for the resumption of U.S. beef imports. That also requires a new round of talks at the Food Safety Commission on the safety of American beef.
U.S. regulations on cattle feed and meat processing methods have been criticized, even in the United States, as being dangerously flawed. The commission will have its work cut out in evaluating the safety of U.S. beef.
One big challenge will be how to track the precise age of the American animals. In the United States, there are no records kept for individual cows. Japan was right in refusing to give a specific date for lifting the ban when U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Japan to take the step during her visit to Tokyo.
If it wants Japan to restart imports of U.S. beef quickly, Washington should be willing to provide all necessary data for discussions at the Food Safety Commission.
Following the beef panel's conclusion, the commission is expected to soon draw up its final report on domestic measures for beef safety. Besides providing scientific estimates of health risks in food, the commission is responsible for increasing and improving public understanding of these risks through exchanges of information and opinions.
The commission needs to deliver a convincing conclusion on U.S. beef based on rigorous scientific evaluation of the risks.
--The Asahi Shimbun, March 29(IHT/Asahi: March 30,2005)
03/30/2005
Many hurdles remain for U.S. beef imports.
The government seems poised to ease its blanket testing of all cattle for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), the world's toughest controls against mad cow disease.
An expert panel under the government's Food Safety Commission has concluded that exempting cows 20 months old or younger from testing will not significantly increase health risks for consumers.
The current anti-BSE system based on the blanket-testing approach has been in place since Japan's first discovery of a BSE-infected cow in autumn 2001. During the three and a half years since then, the number of infected animals has not shown any worrisome increase, while new safety measures have been adopted. The panel's conclusion can be regarded as a reasonable one.
But the proposed review of the testing system should not immediately lead to the lifting of the ban on U.S. beef imports. There are a host of problems that must be sorted out before the Japanese market can be safely opened again to beef from the United States, where meat safety standards are far less rigorous than in Japan.
Despite the beef panel's judgment, most local governments plan to continue testing all domestic cattle for the time being, ensuring that untested beef will not enter the supply chain in Japan anytime soon.
The expert panel debated the appropriateness of easing the testing program on the basis of evaluation of the safety steps that have been taken so far..
Even blanket testing is unlikely to discover BSE in very young animals because the amount of prions-a misshapen protein believed to cause the degenerative brain disorder-is too small to detect in such early stages of infection. The risk of human infection from such young cows is very low. There was general consensus among panel members on these points.
But prions cannot be destroyed easily by ordinary heating. And there are still many questions about BSE that remain unanswered, such as what prion amount poses a serious health hazard. Some panel members warned that the data currently available are insufficient for warranting an easing of the testing policy.
The panel gave the green light to modifying the testing method on certain conditions. In order to secure beef safety, the panel says, regulations on cattle feed, especially imported feed, should be tightened to prevent prions from finding their way into the food chain.
Measures should also be taken to ensure that brains, spinal cords and other dangerous body parts will be eliminated completely from beef sold on the market.
The easing of the controls is not enough for the resumption of U.S. beef imports. That also requires a new round of talks at the Food Safety Commission on the safety of American beef.
U.S. regulations on cattle feed and meat processing methods have been criticized, even in the United States, as being dangerously flawed. The commission will have its work cut out in evaluating the safety of U.S. beef.
One big challenge will be how to track the precise age of the American animals. In the United States, there are no records kept for individual cows. Japan was right in refusing to give a specific date for lifting the ban when U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Japan to take the step during her visit to Tokyo.
If it wants Japan to restart imports of U.S. beef quickly, Washington should be willing to provide all necessary data for discussions at the Food Safety Commission.
Following the beef panel's conclusion, the commission is expected to soon draw up its final report on domestic measures for beef safety. Besides providing scientific estimates of health risks in food, the commission is responsible for increasing and improving public understanding of these risks through exchanges of information and opinions.
The commission needs to deliver a convincing conclusion on U.S. beef based on rigorous scientific evaluation of the risks.
--The Asahi Shimbun, March 29(IHT/Asahi: March 30,2005)
