Slaughterhouses Lax on Mad Cow Precautions, Inspectors Say
Dec. 24, 2004 – A meat inspectors’ union is accusing US slaughterhouses of allowing brain tissue, spinal cords and other banned materials from older cows to enter the food supply in violation of federal regulations. The allegations, which come a year after the United States’ first known case of mad cow disease, add to critics’ concerns that the government has not done enough to ensure that the US beef supply safe.
Even as beef sales are up, anxiety over the market’s vulnerability to infection from bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly called mad cow disease, still lingers. Earlier this month the National Joint Council of Food Inspection Locals sent a letter to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) warning that some of the meat inspectors represented by the union had witnessed prohibited materials on production lines. The union declined to say which facilities it was referring to.
Under current rules, carcasses of cows over 30 months old are to be processed differently, since they are thought to be at greater risk of carrying the disease. Yet, according to the inspectors’ union, animals’ ages were not appropriately noted and some older animals were ending up on the wrong production lines.
USDA spokespeople have told the press that no prohibited animal parts are entering the food supply, and the meat packing trade group American Meat Institute has said it is unaware of any violations.
But as the anniversary of last December’s mad cow discovery came and went, food safety groups have criticized the government for failing to enact even the most rudimentary precautions it promised a year ago. For instance, officials promised to enact greater restrictions on cow feed, but a year later, those have yet to materialize.
Since there has been no known mad cow detection this year, and as Americans continue to consume beef products at ever-increasing rates, critics say the government and the meat industry feel no pressure to impose stricter regulations.
Meanwhile, some doctors and scientists warn that there may be hundreds or thousands of deaths caused by infected beef and other animals that go misdiagnosed as sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease or Alzheimer’s.
by NewStandard Staff
© 2004 The NewStandard. All rights reserved. The NewStandard is a non-profit publisher that encourages noncommercial reproduction of its content. http://newstandardnews.net (The NewStandard ceased publishing on April 27, 2007.)
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