Animal feed in the news again

Today NHK reports that The United States plans to ban the use of brains and spinal cords from cattle aged 30 months or older in feed for all animals to prevent mad cow disease, or BSE. The US Food and Drug Administration announced the proposal on Tuesday banning the use of the so-called high risk parts in feed for pets and all farm animals including pigs and chicken.

Japan's Food Safety Commission has pointed out that the United States may not be able to eradicate BSE due to its insufficient regulation on feed for farm animals. Japan banned US beef imports soon after the first case of BSE was confirmed in the United States in December 2003. NHK's correspondent in Washington says the new ban is apparently aimed at encouraging Japan to resume US beef imports by the end of this year.

Animal feed is a dirty business, and most people choose not to care about it. Time to clean up this business. I noticed that Queen Isetan, a big supermarket chain here in the Tokyo area, is labelling some of their product such as eggs as "fed Particular Material". That is Engrish, but I applaud their efforts.

BSE/food safety previous

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