Food Politics
BPI and Pink Slime: An Updated Timeline
by News Desk | Sep 17, 2012
In the Spring of 2012, a beef product called "Lean Finely Textured Beef,"
an ingredient in an estimated 70 percent of America's ground beef, came under
fire because the meat -- which is pulled from a cow carcass after the main cuts
of beef have been removed and separated from bones and tissue in a heated
centrifuge -- was purportedly more likely to carry foodborne pathogens, despite
being treated with ammonia (another fact that earned criticism of the product).
At the end of March, BPI was forced to shut down three and a half of its
four plants due to loss of demand for LFTB.
In April, James Andrews of Food Safety News put together a history of LFTB
and the controversy leading up to its repudiation across the country.
This month, BPI filed suit against ABC News, former USDA officials and a
former BPI employee for allegedly defaming its product.
The following is an updated timeline of LFTB's history, including this
recent development:
1971: BPI CEO Eldon Roth founds Roth Refrigeration and invents the Roller
Press Freezer, which can freeze packages of meat in two minutes, the company
says, reportedly reducing the time from several hours.
1974: The FDA declares food grade ammonium hydroxide (essentially ammonia
and water) safe for consumption.
1981: Roth founds Beef Products Inc., building its first plant in Amarillo,
Texas. The plant manufactures frozen beef products using the Roller Press
Freezer.
1988: BPI's second plant is opened in Holcomb, Kansas.
1992: The company opens its third plant in Waterloo, Iowa.
1993: The USDA approves BPI's heated centrifuge process of separating lean
beef from fatty, boneless trimmings.
1994: Following the beef industry's increased attention to food safety in
the wake of the 1993 Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak, Eldon Roth starts
developing a pH Enhancement System to reduce the number of pathogens in beef.
Roth's idea employs an ammonium hydroxide gas treatment which eventually paves
the way for the development of Lean Finely Textured Beef (LFTB).
1998: BPI opens its fourth plant in South Sioux City, Nebraska. Later that
year, the company introduces its "test and hold" program for E. coli O157:H7.
2001: The FDA and USDA approve BPI's pH Enhancement System to treat lean
beef with ammonium hydroxide as a processing aid meant to eliminate pathogens.
The company begins marketing ammonia-treated LFTB.
2002: A logistical error at a BPI plant sends 13 boxes of contaminated LFTB
out to customers instead of the rendering plant. The company announced a recall
as soon as it catches the mistake, though none of it gets returned and is
assumed to have been consumed without leading to any reported illnesses. USDA
microbiologist Gerald Zirnstein tours a BPI plant as part of an investigation
into recent contamination. He coins the term "pink slime" in an email to
colleagues, adding, "I do not consider the stuff to be ground beef, and I
consider allowing it in ground beef to be a form of fraudulent labeling." That
same year, the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, the division that buys food
for the school lunch program, releases a memorandum questioning whether LFTB was
in their best interest "from a quality standpoint." The memorandum concluded
that LFTB "should be labeled accordingly," The New York Times said.
2003: Officials in Georgia return 7,000 pounds of LFTB after state prison
cooks complain of strong ammonia odors in 60-pound blocks of the product meant
to be served to prisoners. The officials assume the meat is accidentally
contaminated with ammonia, given that it is not labeled as being treated with
ammonia. That year, a BPI company study questions the palpability of beef
containing LFTB with a pH of 9.5. (The pH of beef typically sits around 6.)
Company email exchanges indicate the pH levels will be lowered.
2004: Federal school lunch officials raise the allowable percentage of LFTB
in school hamburgers from 10 percent to 15 percent to reduce costs. McDonald's
begins adding LFTB to its hamburgers.
2005-2006: Food processing giant Cargill suspends three of its processing
plants for excessive Salmonella, two of which were BPI plants.
2006: Federal school lunch officials find E. coli O157:H7 in BPI products,
stopping shipments before they got to schools.
2007: Officials at the USDA say BPI's ammonia treatment destroys E. coli
"to an undetectable level" and exempts BPI from routine E. coli testing.
Sometime else that year, the International Association of Food Protection awards
BPI the Black Pearl Award, its highest honor, for BPI's commitment to food
safety. The company also expands its South Sioux City plant.
August 2007: Death at plant: Contractors installing new refrigeration
equipment in BPI's Waterloo, Iowa plant forgot to close off a pipe and pumped
ammonia indoors, killing 44 year-old BPI employee Elizabeth Meyers. In December,
Iowa state regulators fined BPI $1 million and cited the company for 34 safety
violations. "We wish we could turn back time and keep the accident from
happening," Eldon Roth told the Washington Post.
2008: The Academy Award-winning documentary Food, Inc. features a segment
on BPI and LFTB, interviewing Eldon Roth and showing daily operations inside
BPI's Nebraska plant. That year, the federal school lunch program dishes up an
estimated 5.5 million pounds of LFTB. Sometime else that year, federal school
lunch officials again find E. coli O157:H7 in BPI products and temporarily halt
shipments.
June 12, 2008: BPI is profiled for its safety reputation in a Washington
Post Business article. An estimated 75 percent of hamburger patties in the U.S.
contain LFTB.
July 2009: Federal school lunch officials temporarily ban hamburger makers
from using LFTB from BPI's Kansas facility after linking it to Salmonella. This
causes the USDA to revoke BPI's exemption from routine pathogen testing.
August 2009: Federal school lunch officials find E. coli O157:H7 in BPI
products for a third time, stopping shipments.
October 3, 2009: Journalist Michael Moss publishes an article in the New
York Times on the E. coli infection of Stephanie Smith, a 22 year-old woman who
became paralyzed after eating a contaminated hamburger. Smith's burger contained
LFTB, but Cargill, the burger maker, ruled out BPI as the cause of the
contamination. The article details the three times BPI's products had tested
positive for E. coli. Moss' article later wins the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for
Explanatory Reporting.
December 30, 2009: Michael Moss publishes another article in the New York
Times, this time focusing on BPI. Through Freedom of Information Act requests,
Moss uncovers and describes a wealth of information about BPI and LFTB,
including many of the details listed in this timeline. In independent tests, The
Times finds LFTB samples with a pH as low as 7.75. BPI provides The Times with
research it says show that E. coli and Salmonella are undetectable at pH 8.5 or
higher.
January 21, 2010: BPI sues Iowa State University for releasing company
documents to Marler Clark law firm after BPI had commissioned Dr. James S.
Dickson, a university professor, to perform tests and research for the company
under a non-disclosure agreement. After filing a public records request to ISU
on November 19, 2009, Marler Clark paid $2,175 for 1,650 pages of documents.
Marler Clark publishes Food Safety News.
February 17, 2010: Food Safety News reports that BPI will begin posting all
of its E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella test results online. The company later
scraps this plan.
April 12, 2011: ABC airs the season two premiere of Jamie Oliver's Food
Revolution, in which the celebrity chef decries both the inclusion of LFTB in
the U.S. school lunch program and the existence of the product itself before
dousing beef scraps in liquid ammonia in front of a live audience.
July 14, 2011: BPI announces it will begin testing for the 'Big Six' E.
coli strains beyond O157:H7 that the USDA now considers adulterants in beef.
January 31, 2012: McDonald's announces that it has stopped adding LFTB to
its burgers, saying the product had been completely removed from its inventory
since August of 2011. At various times, Burger King and Taco Bell also announce
that they have stopped purchasing LFTB.
March 5, 2012: Journalist David Knowles publishes an article in The Daily
that retells the "pink slime" story from the perspectives of Zirnstein and
fellow former USDA scientist Carl Custer. It reports that the USDA plans to buy
7 million pounds of LFTB -- a product both scientists consider "high risk" -- in
the coming months for the national school lunch program.
March 6, 2012: Bettina Siegel, a lawyer-turned-freelance-writer and mother
of two, creates a petition on Change.org asking the USDA to stop purchasing LFTB
for the school lunch program. The petition rapidly gains more than 250,000
signatures and Siegel continues to write about LFTB on her website, The Lunch
Tray.
March 7, 2012: ABC World News with Diane Sawyer features a segment on "pink
slime" by correspondent Jim Avila, who reports that 70 percent of U.S.
supermarket ground beef contains pink slime and this same beef can be labeled as
"100% ground beef." The report also features Zirnstein and Custer interviewed on
camera for the first time, and it is credited with bringing the story of LFTB to
a much wider audience: The show averages just over 7.5 million viewers this
week.
March 8, 2012: ABC News confirms that Costco, Publix, HEB and Whole Foods
do not sell LFTB products.
March 9, 2012: BPI launches BeefIsBeef.com.
March 14, 2012: Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-ME) writes a letter to
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack urging the USDA to stop using LFTB in the
school lunch program, with 41 congress members signing on. That same day, Texas
A&M food science professors Gary Acuff and H. Russell Cross co-author a
commentary criticizing media coverage of LFTB, accusing reporters of "hijacking
the truth, minimizing science, frightening consumers and creating a false
crisis, just to boost their ratings."
March 15, 2012: The USDA announces it will allow school districts the
choice to opt out of serving LFTB-supplemented ground beef. Senator Robert
Menendez (D-NJ) calls the move a "good first step," but urges the USDA to
require labeling of ground beef containing LFTB.
March 16, 2012: Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution team launches
StopPinkSlime.org.
March 17, 2012: Nancy Donley, a spokesperson for the nonprofit public
health organization STOP Foodborne Illness and the mother of a child who died in
the 1993 Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak, writes an opinion piece for Food
Safety News defending BPI's food safety record.
March 20-23, 2012: Supermarkets weigh in: Safeway announces it will stop
selling LFTB products due to "considerable consumer concern." Supervalu Inc.
announces it will follow suit in all of its grocery chains, including
Albertsons, Shop 'n Save and Farm Fresh. Kroger and Food Lion do the same.
Walmart says it will begin labeling LFTB products to give consumers a choice.
Iowa-based Hy-Vee drops LFTB, then reverses its decision and says that like
Walmart, it will provide a choice.
March 22, 2012: New York City Public Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott
announces that NYC schools will no longer serve LFTB beginning September 2012.
Several other school districts announce similar news, or confirm that they did
not serve LFTB in the first place.
March 23, 2012: BPI runs a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal calling
the public backlash a "campaign of lies and deceit." The ad reprints Nancy
Donley's opinion piece from Food Safety News. That same day, Iowa State
University agriculture professor Joseph Sebranek writes that his 1996 study on
LFTB in the Journal of Food Sciences might be misconstrued by some media
reports. "Our research is potentially being misinterpreted by some in the media
as suggesting that LFTB has a deleterious effect on the nutritional quality of
ground beef," he writes. "Nothing in our study or what we know about collagen
more broadly should lead one to that conclusion."
March 25, 2012: BPI announces that due to a loss of business it will
suspend operations at its plants in Texas, Kansas and Iowa for 60 days, leaving
only its plant in Nebraska partially operational. This effectively reduces BPI's
production by 70 percent and puts approximately 650 jobs on hold. The three
plants produced a total of 900,000 pounds of LFTB per day.
March 28, 2012: Agriculture Secretary Vilsack and Iowa Governor Terry
Branstad hold a press conference in Des Moines in an effort to dispel LFTB's
negative image. Vilsack defends the product's inclusion in the school lunch
program because of its safety, low fat content and relatively cheap price. That
night, satirical news anchor Jon Stewart tackles the issue, suggesting that
instead of "pink slime" or "lean finely textured beef," consumers adopt the term
"ammonia-soaked centrifuge separated byproduct paste."
March 29, 2012: Governor Branstad leads a tour of the Nebraska BPI plant
for government officials and notable LFTB supporters. The guest list includes
Texas Governor Rick Perry, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback, Nebraska Lt. Governor
Rick Sheehy, South Dakota Lt. Governor Matt Michels, USDA Under Secretary of
Food Safety Elisabeth Hagen, Gary Acuff and Nancy Donley. Following the tour,
the group held a press conference to answer media questions and counteract what
some of the called "misinformation" spread by the coverage.
March 30, 2012: Congresswoman Pingree introduces a bill that would require
the labeling of beef products that contain LFTB. The "Requiring Easy and
Accurate Labeling of Beef Act" (REAL Beef Act) is cosponsored by 10 congress
members. That same day, fast-food chain Wendy's runs full-page ads in eight
major newspapers stating it has never used LFTB in its food.
April 1, 2012: Both Congressional candidates for Iowa's 4th District,
Republican Congressman Steve King and his Democratic opponent, Christie Vilsack
-- wife of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack -- show bipartisan support for BPI
amid a contentious campaign.
April 2, 2012: The USDA agrees to approve label requests by ground beef
producers who wish to label their products that contain LFTB. Also, Iowa Gov.
Branstad and Congressman King request the House Agriculture Committee to hold a
congressional hearing on the negative media "smear campaign" against BPI. That
night, comedian Stephen Colbert followed Jon Stewart with his own take on the
issue.
April 3, 2012: Blaming the "pink slime" backlash for declines in sales,
ground beef processor AFA Foods files for bankruptcy.
April 4, 2012: A survey commissioned by Red Robin finds that 88 percent of
U.S. adults are aware of "pink slime," with 76 percent of those aware being "at
least somewhat concerned" and 30 percent "extremely concerned."
September 13, 2012: BPI announces that it has filed suit against ABC News,
former USDA officials and a former BPI employee for alleged defamation of its
product. The suit, which was filed in South Dakota state court, seeks $1.2
billion in damages. BPI claims that the defendants launched a "sustained and
vicious campaign" against LFTB which led consumers to believe that the product
was unsafe and fraudulently labeled. ABC News says the suit has "no merit" and
it plans to fight the allegations.
Editor's note: Bill Marler, managing partner of Marler Clark LLP,
underwriter of Food Safety News has been asked to represent defendants Gerald
Zirnstein and Carl Custer.
© Food Safety News More Headlines from Food Politics » Tags: ABC, BPI,
LFTB, pink slime
>>> 2002: A logistical error at a BPI plant sends 13 boxes of
contaminated LFTB out to customers instead of the rendering plant. The company
announced a recall as soon as it catches the mistake, though none of it gets
returned and is assumed to have been consumed without leading to any reported
illnesses. <<<
not only is this a huge logistical error, it’s also a lie. the BSE TSE
prion mad cow agent can incubate, without any symptoms, for 50 years, 5 DECADES,
before someone goes clinical. once clinical, the mad cow type agent is 100%
fatal.
SO, to _assume_ to have been consumed without leading to any reported
illnesses, is a flat out lie, with regards to mad cow type disease aka the BSE
TSE prion agent.
a more truthful statement would be, the potential for your children to have
consumed the BSE TSE prion mad cow type agent is real, the fact of the matter
is, we do not know what the next 5 decades can bring.
but instead, we have the industry and politicians there from calling for
more of this type product to be sold and fed to your children.
crazy, to say the least, but predictable $$$
sadly, we have become a society of acceptance. if it does not affect you
today, who cares about tomorrow?
Incubation periods of infection with human prions can exceed 50
years.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
There Is No Safe Dose of Prions
pink slime or lean fine textured beef ?
these are my opinions, along with a bit of science on the issue of feeding
our children via the USDA NSLP.
1ST and foremost, ammoniated beef does NOT kill the BSE TSE prion mad cow
agent.
to define these scraps i.e. pink slime, as lean fine textured beef, instead
of whatever else you would like to call it, at best, is very deceiving.
I did not coin the term ‘pink slime’, but i think whoever did, the term
fits the product, more than what the USDA et al would like you to call it.
PINK SLIME LFTB MSM MRM BSE TSE PRION
Saturday, April 21, 2012
HISD seeks refund on burgers with 'pink slime'
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
PINK SLIME, MRM’s, BSE AKA MAD COW DISEASE, AND THE USDA NSLP
Saturday, May 26, 2012
SLIMED WITH BSE USA
re-Blogger tackles consumer questions about LFTB, BSE
Monday, September 3, 2012
Sale of misbranded and/or non-inspected meat and meat products to Omaha
Public Schools indicted
Monday, August 27, 2012
Central Valley Meat Company: USDA Did its Job, OK?
Opinion & Contributed Articles
by Dr. Richard Raymond | Aug 27, 2012 Opinion
Dr. Richard Raymond former Undersecretary for Food Safety, U.S. Department
of Agriculture (2005-2008)
In closing, I expect Terry to add his two cents worth and I will point out
that the risk of variant CJD from eating US beef is as close to zero as we can
make it. There are many interlocking steps to keep us safe, including:
Thursday, September 13, 2012
ABC NEWS SLIMED BY BPI OVER LFTB SCAM
> > > Ackerman says downed cattle are 50 times more likely to have
mad cow disease (also known as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or BSE) than
ambulatory cattle that are suspected of having BSE. Of the 20 confirmed cases of
mad cow disease in North America since 1993, at least 16 have involved downer
cattle, he said. < < <
don’t forget the children...
PLEASE be aware, for 4 years, the USDA fed our children all across the
Nation (including TEXAS) dead stock downer cows, the most high risk cattle for
BSE aka mad cow disease and other dangerous pathogens. who will watch our
children for CJD for the next 5+ decades ???
WAS your child exposed to mad cow disease via the NSLP ???
SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAM FROM DOWNER CATTLE UPDATE
DID YOUR CHILD CONSUME SOME OF THESE DEAD STOCK DOWNER COWS, THE MOST HIGH
RISK FOR MAD COW DISEASE ???
you can check and see here ;
WHO WILL FOLLOW THE CHILDREN FOR CJD SYMPTOMS (aka mad cow disease) FOR THE
NEXT 50 YEARS ???
Saturday, May 2, 2009
U.S. GOVERNMENT SUES WESTLAND/HALLMARK MEAT OVER USDA CERTIFIED DEADSTOCK
DOWNER COW SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAM
it should be all about the children, not all about the beef.
but sadly, history shows us otherwise. $$$
BABY FOODS
There are 4 brands available for a quick survey - Boots, Cow & Gate,
Heinz and Robinson.
None of the meat dishes included 'offal' in the ingredients.
Steak & Kidney and Beef and Oxtail did, however, include kidney and
oxtail.....
snip...
About the only item it seems many remain to be decided next week is what if
anything we say about offal in baby food. I enclose now in confidence the draft
as it stands at present concerning this aspect. It might be that no action is
recommened. On the other hand, the working party, PERSUADED BY THE ANIMAL
EVIDENCE THAT IMMATURE ANIMALS ARE MORE SUSCEPTIBLE TO INFECTION WITH THE AGENTS
OF SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY, may make some recommendations either about
labelling or about banning offal in baby food.......
BSE SOUTHWOOD REPORT
CONFIDENTIAL
snip...
BABY FOODS
7. The working Party consider that manufacturers of baby foods should, as a
precautionary measure, avoid the use of ruminant offals and thymus. Sir Richard
Southwood has told the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food that the
likelihood of problems arising through the use of these products in baby food is
very low indeed and that this suggestion is counsel of ''extreme prudence''. In
practice thymus is not used in the preperation of baby foods, kidneys and liver
are because of their nutritional value. Officials will contact manufacturers
urgently to seek their reaction to the suggestion...
snip...
This would enable us to assess more fully what the actual risks are and
what the risks are of any ban on liver and kidney in baby foods.
We do not wish to create problems for young children and ethnic minorities
simply on the basis of poorly substantiated speculation. On the other hand, if
there is clear evidence this must be taken into account. My understanding is
that the evidence is not clear-cut and does need further consideration...
snip...
http://web.archive.org/web/20030506230546/http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/yb/1989/02/15002001.pdf
BSE AND BABY FOOD
snip...
1. We spoke about MacGregor's concern about baby food and how, if asked
about beef liver and kidney, he was proposing replying:
"I understand that the committee (Southwood's) did not have the opportunity
to examine thoroughly all the scientific evidence relating to offal particularly
liver and kidney in human and baby food. I therefore propose to refer the matter
to the CMO to seek his advice before taking any further action."
2. Whilst we agreed this clearly was passing the buck, I guess it's the
best MacGregor can do.....
snip...
POWERS TO REGULATE BABY FOODS
DEFINITION OF BABY FOOD
1. There is no definition of baby food (nor of baby) for food legislation
purposes...
snip...
Heinz Baby Foods
WE guarantee that __________________ are free from offal OTHER THAN that
which is named in any product description and in particular contain no thymus,
brains, spinal chord, spleen, and intestine.
THE ONLY OFFALS USED IN __________________ ARE KIDNEY, LIVER, AND OXTAIL
when they are always identified on the lable, both in the product description
and in the list of ingredients.
PICTURE OF BABY FOOD JAR NAMED STEAK AND KIDNEY LUNCH
INGREDIENTS - WATER, BEEF, CARROTS, POTATOES, KIDNEY, MODIFIED CORN FLOUR,
SPLIT GREEN PEAS, FLOUR, TOMATO PUREE, LIVER, .....
snip...
ANOTHER PICTURE OF BABY FOOD JAR NAMED BEEF AND OXTAIL DINNER
ingredients listed also, but difficult to read, name self explanitory,
contains beef and OXTAIL...TSS
ANOTHER BABY FOOD JAR NAMED LIVER AND BACON DINNER, ingredients
listed
ANOTHER BABY FOOD JAR NAMED STEAK AND KIDNEY DINNER, ingredients
listed
ANOTHER BABY FOOD JAR NAMED BRAISED STEAK AND KIDNEY, ingredients
listed
ANOTHER BABY FOOD JAR NAMED LAMB AND LIVER CASSEROLE, NO INGREDIENTS LISTED
(WHAT ABOUT LAMB AND BSE ??? TSS)
for someone to claim no risk from these products to young children with
todays science and with the documented pictures of the baby food jars with
ingredients, is like johann saying there is NO RISK from canadian beef. just
aint so folks...CASE IN POINT;
107 Vet Pathol 42:107 108 (2005) Letters to the Editor Editor:
Absence of evidence is not always evidence of absence.
In the article Failure to detect prion protein (PrPres) by
immunohistochemistry in striated muscle tissues of animals experimentally
inoculated with agents of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, recently
published in Veterinary Pathology (41:78 81, 2004), PrPres was not detected in
striated muscle of experimentally infected elk, cattle, sheep, and raccoons by
immunohistochemistry (IHC). Negative IHC, however, does not exclude the presence
of PrPSc. For example, PrPres was detected in skeletal muscle in 8 of 32 humans
with the prion disease, sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), using sodium
phosphotungstic acid (NaPTA) precipitation and western blot.1 The NaPTA
precipitation, described by Wadsworth et al.,3 concentrates the abnormal isoform
of the prion, PrPres, from a large tissue homogenate volume before western
blotting. This technique has increased the sensitivity of the western blot up to
three orders of magnitude and could be included in assays to detect PrPres.
Extremely conspicuous deposits of PrPres in muscle were detected by IHC in a
recent case report of an individual with inclusion body myositis and CJD.2 Here,
PrPres was detected in the muscle by immunoblotting, IHC, and paraf-
fin-embedded tissue blot. We would therefore caution that, in addition to IHC,
highly sensitive biochemical assays and bioassays of muscle are needed to assess
the presence or absence of prions from muscle in experimental and natural TSE
cases. Christina Sigurdson, Markus Glatzel, and Adriano Aguzzi Institute of
Neuropathology University Hospital of Zurich Zurich, Switzerland References 1
Glatzel M, Abela E, et al: Extraneural pathologic prion protein in sporadic
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. N Engl J Med 349(19):1812 1820, 2003 2 Kovacs GG,
Lindeck-Pozza E, et al: Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and inclusion body myositis:
abundant diseaseassociated prion protein in muscle. Ann Neurol 55(1): 121 125,
2004 3 Wadsworth JDF, Joiner S, et al: Tissue distribution of protease resistant
prion protein in variant CJD using a highly sensitive immuno-blotting assay.
Lancet 358:171 180, 2001tss
COW AND GATE BABY FOODS
snip...
Further to our telephone conversation today, I would like to confirm to you
that ____________________ babyfoods do not contain brain, bowels, feet,
testicles or lever (oh my...TSS). WE DO have a babymeal variety which contains
kidney, but I can confirm that this is correctly labelled in line with current
UK legislation...
snip...
ANNEX 2
Dear Dr. Woolfe,
This is to confirm that the only offal used in ____________________ beef
kidney, which is used in Steak and Kidney Junior Meal. The kidney is purchased
to a tight specification and is checked for quality.
We do not use any other offal material, such as liver, brain, intestines,
spinal cord etc...
snip...
http://web.archive.org/web/20030516041446/http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/yb/1989/02/27015001.pdf
BABY FOODS WARNING
snip...
Although we are aware from Dr. Woolfe's enquiries that none of these
particular offals are CURRENTLY used in baby food... nonetheless the Ministers
wishes to go ahead urgently........
snip...
NEWSPAPER ARTICLE ABOUT BABY FOOD WARNING
HERE IS A MOST DISTURBING DOCUMENT.
2. In his fourth paragraph, Mr. Cockbill says that in notifying the EC
Commission we can claim the need for urgent action on the basis of a ''KNOWN
HEALTH RISK''. I am concerned that this might be misinterpreted by the
Commission and others. The Southwood Report concluded that, from present
evidence, cattle are likely to prove a dead-end host for the BSE agent and that
BSE is most unlikely to have any implications for human health. Our action in
banning offal in baby foods is therefore a precautionary measure and not one to
deal with a known risk.
3. In view of the sensitivity of this issue could I ask that you keep us in
close touch with developments at your end and let us HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO SEE
DRAFTS OF THE NOTIFICATION, SUBMISSION ETC?
snip...
http://web.archive.org/web/20030714134945/http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/yb/1989/03/03003001.pdf
MANIPULATING AND MANAGING STATEMENTS TO THE MEDIA
IN CONFIDENCE
5. IT might be PRUDENT to advise that where bovine or ovine bones are
required for food purposes PARTICULARLY FOR BABY FOODS THEY SHOULD BE OBTAINED
FROM LIMB BONES ALONE...
R BRADLEY MARCH 4, 1989
STILL CONCERNS OF TAIL MEAT IN BABY FOOD
THE BABY FOOD (PROHIBITED OFFAL) REGULATIONS
SNIP...
WE need however to consider those offals that are included in Part Heart,
liver and kidney have all been discussed and agreed as suitable for use in baby
foods. Diaphragm, head meat (muscle meat) and tongue are not offals in the
accepted sense. This leaves pancreas and tail meat to be considered.
.........
snip...
IN reaching your views on these issues, could I please draw to your
attention the relationship that they will have for meat products general.
Although the Southwood Report confined itself to offals baby foods, opinions are
already being expressed publicly (some medical practitioners) that similar
prohibitions should extend to all meat products. SINCE SOME MEAT PRODUCTS WILL
UNDOUBTEDLY BE CONSUMED BY BY YOUNG CHILDREN OR TEENAGERS, IT MAY BE DIFFICULT
TO DRAW A LINE BETWEEN BABY FOODS AND OTHERS. ...
snip...
THE BABY FOOD (PROHIBITED OFFAL) REGULATIONS 1989
BABY FOODS
There are 4 brands available for a quick survey - Boots, Cow & Gate,
Heinz and Robinson.
None of the meat dishes included 'offal' in the ingredients.
Steak & Kidney and Beef and Oxtail did, however, include kidney and
oxtail.....
snip...
About the only item it seems many remain to be decided next week is what if
anything we say about offal in baby food. I enclose now in confidence the draft
as it stands at present concerning this aspect. It might be that no action is
recommened. On the other hand, the working party, PERSUADED BY THE ANIMAL
EVIDENCE THAT IMMATURE ANIMALS ARE MORE SUSCEPTIBLE TO INFECTION WITH THE AGENTS
OF SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY, may make some recommendations either about
labelling or about banning offal in baby food.......
2. The Southwood report recommended that baby foods manufactureres should
not use ruminant offal and thymus in baby foods. This was interpreted as any
offal listed in Schedule 2 Part 2 of the Meat Product Regulations. The
Committee, in effect, are advising the Ministry that ANY offal which carries ANY
risk of transmitting the BSE agent to baby foods should not be used in their
manufacture. The offal listed in Part 2 Schedule 2 of the MPSFPR is by NO MEANS
EXHAUSTIVE, and OTHER ORGANS EXIST e.g. ENDOCRINE AND PITUITARY GLANDS, which
are HIGH 'RISK' from the point of view of the presence of BSE or Scrapie agent.
Therefore I feel that any regulations should widen the scope of the definition
of offal to include any of these organs NOT mentioned in Part 2...
snip...
5. I had some reservations about TAILMEAT because of its close association
with the spinal cord.
WE need however to be wary of casting the net too wide in case we catch
products for which there is no justification on restricting them. What I have in
mind here is your suggestion that we should also cover all products produced
from offals. Rennet is of course produced from CALVES STOMACHS and LARD or
TALLOW may be produced from mammalian offals. SO far as I am aware thse are
produced at sufficiently high temperature that there is no need to restrict
their use in baby foods...
COMMENTS FROM Dr. Hilary Pickles;
To pick out some of these tissues but not others would be difficult to
justify. Within this group I would include pancreas (sweetbread) and PERIPHERAL
NERVES (which brings in oxtail) and possibly liver too. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND
INCLUDING THESE IN ANY BAN AT PRESENT, but it should perhaps be recognised that
the level of suspicion is somewhat higher than with other tissues such as muscle
mass (steaks etc).
RENNET SHOULD BE OF NO CONCERN SINCE IT IS AN EXTRACT OF STOMACH
............
THE BABY FOOD (PROHIBITED OFFAL) REGULATIONS 1989
BSE-BABY FOODS R BRADELY
(written letter hard to read...TSS)
info- and to ensure we DO NOT GET THE BLAME FOR LEGISLATION THAT CAN BE ???
ON A SCIENTIFIC BASIS.
snip...
4. An important OMISSION IS LYMPH NODE. This was NOT identified
specifically in previous regulations but IS A HIGH RISK TISSUE IF BSE FOLLOWS
THE LINE OF SCRAPIE...
The idea therefore that the Richmond Committee should now examine the wider
issue of offals in foods and the risks of BSE does NOT seem to me to be a
logical consequence from Dr Pickles letter of 13 April.
SNIP...
I think any reference to that in the letter should be deleted and we should
stick firmly to the line that we have from Alan Lawrence that the Richmond
Committee should leave this TOPIC WELL ALONE;
IN CONFIDENCE
They classify offals into two groups as follows:-
(i) Diaphragm, head meat (muscle only), heart, kideny, liver, pancreas,
tail meat, thymus, tongue.
(ii) Brains, feet, intestine, lungs, oesophagus, rectum, spinal cord,
spleen, stomach, texticles udder.
Group (i) can be used in ALL MEAT PRODUCTS AND CAN COUNT TOWARD THE MEAT
CONTENT OF THOSE PRODUCTS
Group (ii) can only be used in cooked meat products and cannot count
towards meat content.......
21 pages;
see history below, but after the great debate between me and ralph between
1999 and 2005, the end product was this in 2005 ;
Professor James Ironside, of the CJD surveillance unit in Edinburgh, was
cautious, but admitted: "Exposure to baby food is indeed a possibility."
BSE 'may have entered baby food in 70s'
James Meikle, health correspondent Friday March 4, 2005 The Guardian
Scientists are to test a hypothesis that young people who have died from
the human form of BSE were infected by contaminated baby foods as far back as
1970.
The controversial idea supposes that some meat products were harmful to
people 16 years before BSE in cows was even recognised, and 25 years before
young adults began dying from its dreadful human equivalent.
Should this prove true, it will mean rethinking the likely future course of
the disease, which is predominantly British, although cases have occurred in
other countries.
Variant CJD here appears to be on the wane. Only nine people died in 2004,
the fewest since 1995, its first recorded year, giving rise to the hope that no
more than a few hundred may eventually succumb to it. Since 1995, 154 Britons
have been identified with the disease, a handful of whom are still alive.
But the hypothesis advanced by Stephen Dealler, a microbiologist at
Lancaster Royal infirmary, suggests that only the "first wave" is
declining.
He argues that there were further infections in the mid- to late-1980s,
when teenagers and others ate contaminated meat, including burgers. By then
hundreds of thousands of cattle were carrying BSE and the tissues most likely to
contain infection were not banned in food until 1989.
Babies are more susceptible to infection because their gut walls are more
permeable, Dr Dealler said yesterday. But even in them the disease took about 25
years to take its course.
People infected later would take far longer, up to 40 or 50 years, to
develop the clinical disease, indeed might never do so at all, but could still
be in fectious; a nightmare for blood transfusion services, which depend on the
under 40s for donations.
Dr Dealler put his ideas to the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory
Committee, a government advisory body, which greeted them with scepticism.
But even doubters are concerned that the average age of victims at death is
still in the late 20s, an average which ought to be getting higher as more years
pass since the food controls introduced in the late 1980s.
Extrapolation from studies of otherwise healthy appendixes have suggested
that as many as 3,800 people may be carrying the infection.
Moreover, all those who have died from the disease so far have been from
one genetic group, but evidence of vCJD infection in the spleen has been found
in a patient who died from another cause and had a different genetic
make-up.
This raised the fear that far more people may yet go down with the disease
while displaying different symptoms.
Dr Dealler claims that his hypothesis fits the evidence from animals with
similar diseases, and from cannibals in Papua New Guinea acciden tally infected
with a brain disease.
"It has been shown that neonatal animals are more easily infected, and with
lower doses of disease, than older animals," he said. "The real epidemic of BSE
in humans has not actually started. What we are just seeing is the beginning
with young children."
Proving his ideas will be difficult, and food manufacturers have refused to
give him data from the 1970s and 1980s.
The possible drawbacks to his hypothesis include the fact that many of the
15 people infected with vCJD recorded abroad had never been to Britain, and only
one, from the US, was a baby in Britain.
Other scientists question his assumptions about the incubation periods in
animals and humans.
Professor James Ironside, of the CJD surveillance unit in Edinburgh, was
cautious, but admitted: "Exposure to baby food is indeed a possibility."
Professor Chris Higgins of Imperial College London, who chairs Seac, was
blunter: "There is a lot of anecdote there, rather than hard and fast
data.
"We really need to go away and assess that before anyone jumps to any
conclusions. I think we would all accept there is some age range during which
infection probably occurs. But I am not at all convinced at the moment, until we
have looked at all the details, that the idea that it is first the very young,
and secondly pre-the main epidemic is likely to be right at all."
The Infant and Dietetic Foods Association, representing baby food
manufacturers, insists on its website that manufacturers "have never used any of
the high risk materials banned as a result of the controls on BSE".
Sunday, May 18, 2008
BSE, CJD, and Baby foods (the great debate 1999 to 2005)
http://bseinquiry.blogspot.com/2008/05/bse-cjd-and-baby-foods-great-debate.html
BSE, CJD, and Baby foods (the great debate 1999 to 2005)
http://bseinquiry.blogspot.com/2008/05/bse-cjd-and-baby-foods-great-debate.html
what are high risk materials today ???
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Detection of PrPSc in peripheral tissues of clinically affected cattle
after oral challenge with BSE
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Final Feed Investigation Summary - California BSE Case - July 2012
SUMMARY REPORT CALIFORNIA BOVINE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY CASE
INVESTIGATION JULY 2012
Summary Report BSE 2012
Executive Summary
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Update from APHIS Regarding Release of the Final Report on the BSE
Epidemiological Investigation
in the url that follows, I have posted
SRM breaches first, as late as 2011.
then
MAD COW FEED BAN BREACHES AND TONNAGES OF MAD COW FEED IN COMMERCE up until
2007, when they ceased posting them.
then,
MAD COW SURVEILLANCE BREACHES.
Friday, May 18, 2012
Update from APHIS Regarding a Detection of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy
(BSE) in the United States Friday May 18, 2012
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Seven main threats for the future linked to prions
First threat
The TSE road map defining the evolution of European policy for protection
against prion diseases is based on a certain numbers of hypotheses some of which
may turn out to be erroneous. In particular, a form of BSE (called atypical
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy), recently identified by systematic testing in
aged cattle without clinical signs, may be the origin of classical BSE and thus
potentially constitute a reservoir, which may be impossible to eradicate if a
sporadic origin is confirmed. ***Also, a link is suspected between atypical BSE
and some apparently sporadic cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. These
atypical BSE cases constitute an unforeseen first threat that could sharply
modify the European approach to prion diseases.
Second threat
snip...
EFSA Journal 2011 The European Response to BSE: A Success Story
This is an interesting editorial about the Mad Cow Disease debacle, and
it's ramifications that will continue to play out for decades to come ;
Monday, October 10, 2011
EFSA Journal 2011 The European Response to BSE: A Success Story
snip...
EFSA and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)
recently delivered a scientific opinion on any possible epidemiological or
molecular association between TSEs in animals and humans (EFSA Panel on
Biological Hazards (BIOHAZ) and ECDC, 2011). This opinion confirmed Classical
BSE prions as the only TSE agents demonstrated to be zoonotic so far but the
possibility that a small proportion of human cases so far classified as
"sporadic" CJD are of zoonotic origin could not be excluded. Moreover,
transmission experiments to non-human primates suggest that some TSE agents in
addition to Classical BSE prions in cattle (namely L-type Atypical BSE,
Classical BSE in sheep, transmissible mink encephalopathy (TME) and chronic
wasting disease (CWD) agents) might have zoonotic potential.
snip...
see follow-up here about North America BSE Mad Cow TSE prion risk factors,
and the ever emerging strains of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy in many
species here in the USA, including humans ;
2011 Monday, September 26, 2011
L-BSE BASE prion and atypical sporadic CJD
Saturday, March 5, 2011
MAD COW ATYPICAL CJD PRION TSE CASES WITH CLASSIFICATIONS PENDING ON THE
RISE IN NORTH AMERICA
Wednesday, August 01, 2012
Behavioural and Psychiatric Features of the Human Prion Diseases:
Experience in 368 Prospectively Studied Patients
Monday, August 06, 2012
Atypical neuropathological sCJD-MM phenotype with abundant white matter
Kuru-type plaques sparing the cerebellar cortex
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease Human TSE report update North America, Canada,
Mexico, and USDA PRION UNIT as of May 18, 2012
type determination pending Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (tdpCJD), is on the
rise in Canada and the USA
Friday, August 24, 2012
Iatrogenic prion diseases in humans: an update
Monday, July 23, 2012
The National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center July 2012
Monday, August 13, 2012
Summary results of the second national survey of abnormal prion prevalence
in archived appendix specimens August 2012
Monday, August 20, 2012
CASE REPORTS CREUTZFELDT-JAKOB DISEASE: AN UNDER-RECOGNIZED CAUSE OF
DEMENTIA
TSS
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