§ Baroness Byfordasked Her Majesty's Government:
What representations they have made to the Belgian authorities following the discovery of a second incident of BSE specified risk material being found in beef imported from Belgium. [HL1850]
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§ Lord Hunt of Kings HeathThe Food Standards Agency (FSA), which is responsible for food safety matters in the United Kingdom, has alerted the Belgian veterinary authorities to the incident. The FSA has asked those authorities to investigate the incident and to notify the FSA of the action being taken to prevent a recurrence. The FSA has also notified the European Commission.
§ Baroness Byfordasked Her Majesty's Government:
Which companies have been found to have imported meat containing BSE specified risk material in the past two years. [HL1851]
§ Lord Hunt of Kings HeathSince the introduction of harmonised European Union-wide controls on specified risk materials (SRMs) in October 2000, there have been 23 instances where consignments of meat imported into the United Kingdom from other EU member states have been found to contain SRM. In all but one case the SRM concerned was spinal cord.
In each case the importing company was not responsible for the problem. Under EU rules it is the responsibility of the slaughterhouse operator to ensure the removal of all spinal cord and other specified risk material before the meat is placed on the market or traded.
The names of the importing companies involved are set out in the following table.
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Name of Importing Company No. of consignments of imported meat found to contain SRM ABP Newry Co. Down Northern Ireland 2 Anglo Dutch Meats Eastbourne Sussex 13 Blackpool Abattoir Blackpool Lancashire 1 Cumberland Meat Packers Ltd Coventry 1 Dungannon Meats Larne Northern Ireland 1 Great Harwood Food Products Blackburn Lancashire 2 Matheson Jess Ltd Dundee Scotland 1 Najib & Sons Foston Derbyshire 1 (ovine SRM) St Merryn Meats (Victoria) Cornwall 1 In addition, there have been six instances where beef imported into Northern Ireland from the Republic of Ireland was found to contain SRM. In these cases the names of the importing companies have not been published.
§ Baroness Byfordasked Her Majesty's Government:
What action the European Commission has taken against Belgium, Spain, Holland, Italy and Denmark in connection with the export of beef to United Kingdom with spinal cord still attached. [HL1852]
§ Lord Hunt of Kings HeathFollowing the instances in which spinal cord has been found in beef exported from other European Union member states to the United Kingdom, the European Commission has written to member states to remind them of their responsibilities to enforce EU law. The problems have also been discussed in the EU's Standing Veterinary Committee.
Immediate action against the meat plants where the breaches of the law occurred lies with the national authorities of the member states concerned. Following requests from the UK, those national authorities have investigated each case. As a result, operations have been suspended or curtailed in eight plants until identified deficiencies in controls were rectified. Of these plants, four were in Germany and one in each of Denmark, the Republic of Ireland, Italy and the Netherlands.