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The Great British meat scandal
by Science Correspondent, Pallab Ghosh |
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An investigation for this programme has revealed that the Food Standards Agency has launched an investigation into how the Food industry used the most dangerous parts of meat that may have been infected with BSE during the 1980s and early nineties.
The move follows a complaint to the Department of Health by three of the government's most senior scientists who have said that their efforts to obtain vital infomation from British food companies to predict the growing CJD epidemic have been continually frustrated.
So far more than 100 people have died as a result of eating BSE infected meat. No one yet knows what the eventual death toll will be - latest estimates suggest it could be as high as 100,000.
It's the job of a government committee - SEAC to keep on top of the epidemic - and to try and predict how it will develop. The Today programme has learned that this committee has been continually thwarted in its attempts to get vital information from Britain's leading Food companies. The members of SEAC have become so frustrated that in an unprecidented step - three of the leading scientists on the committee - have spoken out on the issue:
The chairman of SEAC, Professor Peter Smith, told Today: "This is important information to have. It鈥檚 potentially a major route whereby the human population was exposed to BSE agent. One would guess that this cheap meat product could have gone into the sort of products served in school dinners and other large institutions. We don鈥檛 know that but it seems reasonable speculation."
Other Senior members of SEAC who have spoken out are Professor John Collinge and Professor Roy Anderson
Mechanically Recovered Meat is effectively slurry - though it can be similar to mince in appearance. The worry is that MR beef may have contained infected spinal cord.
Officials acting on behalf of the government have been trying to get information from the food companies since 1996. Inquiries by the Today programme found a reluctance among food companies to talk about the use of MRM. Most companies said they鈥檇 never included it in their products - even though a report which involved the industry estimated that 4-5,000 tonnes of beef MRM was being produced each year in the UK in the late 1980s.
Celia Bennett, director of the British Meat Manufacturers Association said: "We are aware of this perception on the part of SEAC that the industry is withholding information - but that鈥檚 not true - we are doing our utmost, and are in discussion with the Food Standards Agency and advising our members about it and acting as an intermediary on this issue."
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John Selwyn Gummer and Daughter |
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Roy Anderson |
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Food Standards Agency |
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