COEX attendees told 'Change is imperative'

IBP, Inc., Dakota Dunes, SD, one of the nation's major meat packers, recently announced that it is requiring signed affidavits from its cattle suppliers, verifying that their livestock have not been fed "prohibited proteins" de-rived from ruminant (cud-chewing) animals.

In so doing, the industry player joins other major U.S. producers going this route. Perhaps more interestingly, IBP's prepared statement on its certification program acknowledges, in effect, that there are marketing implications in this nation resulting from Europe's recent problems with mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform en- cephalopathy (BSE).

To be sure, the United States has been vigilant in guarding against this lethal foodborne disease––the reason behind such certification programs. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned use of animal byproducts as ingredients in feed for ruminant animals like cattle in 1997, in an attempt to prevent introduction of the malady into the U.S. food supply, as such feed is thought to be the source of transmission.



"While we are confident cattle producers are abiding by this FDA rule, we believe this certification program will provide added assurance to our customers and the consumer," comments Gene Leman, ceo of IBP Fresh Meats Co., in an- nouncing the initiative.

In fact, the threat of BSE here appears minimal. While it is a growing problem in Europe, BSE has not been detected in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, have en-gaged in "active surveillance efforts" since May 1990, and BSE is "extremely unlikely" to be a foodborne hazard in this country, the federal health watchdog agency has concluded.

However, even if foodborne BSE is little likely to surface here, concerns about it have, raising the possibility that the public could be scared off. A barrage of recent media stories has targeted the issue for several reasons: the disease has spread in Europe; the McDonald's name there was linked to an Italian meat processor where mad-cow contamination was suspected; and, most significantly, a slip-up occurred in safety procedures right here, in Texas.

McDonald's Corp., for its part, had to reassure consumers in Italy that its patties were not made in the plant where a cow, suspected of suffering from BSE, had been discovered. In the Texas incident, feed containing ruminant material was erroneously fed to cattle, quarantined as a result, although the feed, domestic in origin, was unlikely to have posed a hazard

"This episode indicates that the multilayered safeguard system put into place is essential for protecting the food supply and that continued vigilance needs to be taken, by all concerned, to ensure these rules are