Beef Imports from Germany (Hansard, 21 March 2001)

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath)

The Government are advised on matters of food safety by the Food Standards Agency (FSA).

Beef from European Union member states may be imported freely into the United Kingdom under the rules of the single European market. From a food safety perspective, it must have been produced in accordance with the requirements of the Fresh Meat Directive (Directive 64/433/EEC), and those of Commission Decision 2000/418/EC on specified risk material controls that came into effect on 1 October 2000. Imported beef from other member states is also subject to EU Trade Regulation 2777/2000, which bans the sale of beef from animals aged over 30 months at time of slaughter except those which have been tested negative for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE). This regulation came into effect on 1 January 2001. Moreover, the Fresh Meat (Beef Controls) (No 2) Regulations 1996, as amended, (and the equivalent in Northern Ireland) prohibits the sale for human consumption of beef from any animal aged over 30 months at the time of slaughter, with exemptions only for animals from specifically identified grass-fed herds in the United Kingdom, and for animals from 14 non-European Union countries that have traditionally supplied the UK and in which there has been no history of BSE. This legislation therefore applies to beef imported from other member states as well as to home produced beef.

The recent cases of imported German beef found to have SRM still attached have been taken up with the European Commission and with the German national authorities. Two German abattoirs have had their licences to produce meat (both for their home and export markets) suspended by the relevant German authorities. In the UK, the Meat Hygiene Service (and its equivalent in Northern Ireland) has been instructed to check every single consignment of imported carcass beef from Germany which is received at licensed meat plants in the UK.

Given the EU and domestic controls that are in place and the increased level of checks on beef imported into the UK from Germany, the FSA does not consider that a ban on further imports of beef from Germany is justified or warranted on public health grounds.