§ Baroness Byfordasked Her Majesty's Government:
In which European Union member states farmers are still feeding their cattle meat and bone meal which was banned in 1994. [HL2954]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Whitty)EU-wide controls on feeding mammalian protein (including mammalian meat and bone meal) to ruminants were introduced in June 1994.
However, inspection visits by the European Commission's Food and Veterinary Office (FVO) have repeatedly reported on inadequate implementation of the feed ban. Even in its inspections between 1998 and 2000, the FVO found that there was a significant risk of contamination of ruminant feed by mammalian meat and bone meal in nine member states: Belgium, Germany, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal (up to July 1999) and Finland.
From 1 January 2001, due to concerns about cross-contamination and an increase in BSE cases across the Community, additional EU-wide measures were introduced banning the use of a wide range of processed animal proteins in feed for all farm animals. These stronger measures offer a more effective approach to stop the spread of the disease.