Blood, Meat and Bone Meal Fertilisers

HL Deb 13 February 1997 vol 578 cc28-9WA

Baroness Masham of Ilton

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether bone meal, meat and blood are safe for use as fertilisers in the growing of vegetables.

Lord Lucas

The sale and use of meat and bone meal as a fertiliser on agricultural land has been prohibited. The ban follows a recommendation of the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee (SEAC) that mammalian meat and bone meal should be prohibited in any circumstances where there might be a risk of ruminant animals ingesting such material.

The ban applies to commercial horticulture but not where plants are propagated and grown in greenhouses or similar glass or plastic structures. Since the measure is concerned with preventing BSE from reaching ruminants, there is no restriction on the use of meat and bone meal fertilisers in private gardens. Such fertilisers must not contain material derived from BSE suspects or animals slaughtered under the Over Thirty Months Scheme, or specified bovine materials.

The SEAC has advised that there is no reason to forbid the spreading of blood on the land.