What is in your sausage...?
An old joke says:
There are two things people like, but they don't want to know how they are made. One of them is how to make laws in the parliament. The other is how to make sausages.
Over at Food Safety Citizens' Watch, a coalition of independent consumer experts, the concern about BSE in Japan is high. They note that a recent international meeting of the global animal health group OIE produced some very controversial guidelines, that could seriously hamper government attempts to make meat safer. Here is a quote from the FSCW newsletter:
The new OIE rules will allow trade of boneless beef and so-called "deboned skeletal muscle meat". This is a type of red meat that can be used in sausages and hamburgers. It is also called mechanically deboned meat, as the meat is removed from the bone with high pressure, but it has been shown to also include nerve tissue, spinal cord and bone marrow. Some food companies actually have policies stating that they do not use deboned meat, but such policies are not binding, and cannot be controlled. In addition, the new OIE rules will allow trade of blood products from cattle of all ages.
According to the World Trade Organisation, countries have to abide by standards agreed by such obscure groups, like the OIE. I have a problem with that!
In the UK, the Consumers Association Which has been active in the BSE debate since the big outbreak in the 1990s. Read more on their excellent food safety website. Their monthly BSE reports feature regular updates of science news, relevant general news and official figures.
BSE/food safety previous
There are two things people like, but they don't want to know how they are made. One of them is how to make laws in the parliament. The other is how to make sausages.
Over at Food Safety Citizens' Watch, a coalition of independent consumer experts, the concern about BSE in Japan is high. They note that a recent international meeting of the global animal health group OIE produced some very controversial guidelines, that could seriously hamper government attempts to make meat safer. Here is a quote from the FSCW newsletter:
The new OIE rules will allow trade of boneless beef and so-called "deboned skeletal muscle meat". This is a type of red meat that can be used in sausages and hamburgers. It is also called mechanically deboned meat, as the meat is removed from the bone with high pressure, but it has been shown to also include nerve tissue, spinal cord and bone marrow. Some food companies actually have policies stating that they do not use deboned meat, but such policies are not binding, and cannot be controlled. In addition, the new OIE rules will allow trade of blood products from cattle of all ages.
According to the World Trade Organisation, countries have to abide by standards agreed by such obscure groups, like the OIE. I have a problem with that!
In the UK, the Consumers Association Which has been active in the BSE debate since the big outbreak in the 1990s. Read more on their excellent food safety website. Their monthly BSE reports feature regular updates of science news, relevant general news and official figures.
BSE/food safety previous
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