Brussels, Belgium - The European Union's vote to lift the British beef ban imposed in 1996 during the mad cow crisis prompted a consumer backlash in some parts of the Continent, but EU officials said Wednesday that strict controls on exports ensure the meat is safe.
British beef is not likely to find its way into continental supermarkets until next spring at the earliest, but shoppers in France and Germany have lost no time in saying the decision has come too early.
In Germany, the only EU country to vote against lifting the embargo, the reaction was most severe. Consumers polled by a top television network pledged to boycott all beef in protest.
EU officials stress the strict export criteria ensure British beef is safe to eat, but skepticism on the streets of Paris and Bonn highlights the mammoth task facing British farmers to reopen lost markets, once worth $1 billion a year.
“This measure provides all the guarantees necessary that the beef exported under the scheme is safe,” said Gerry Kiely, spokesman for EU Farm Commissioner Franz Fischler, the architect of the original ban and the proposal to lift it.
EU farm ministers voted Monday to end the embargo, imposed in March 1996 as a response to the mad cow crisis.
British agriculture minister Nick Brown declared the decision “a victory for science and for the EU” despite the negative vote from Germany and abstentions from France, Spain, Austria and Luxembourg.
Beef will only be eligible for export as long as it is deboned and comes from cattle aged between 6 and 30 months and born after August 1996, the date when a ban on feeding meat and bonemeal to animals became fully effective.
To safeguard against the possibility of maternal transmission of mad cow disease, the mother of the animal slaughtered must have lived for at least six months after the birth and must not be suspected of contracting the disease.
The meat must be handled only by slaughterhouses dedicated to beef for export.
The European Commission will now send a team of veterinary experts to Britain for a final check on the controls in place.
Once the inspection report has been cleared in Brussels, the EU executive body will set a date for exports to resume. This process is likely to take some months.
Only then will British beef exporters really know how badly the crisis over mad cow disease has affected their export industry.
Prior to the embargo, Britain exported beef to more than a dozen different countries throughout the world, with most sent to EU partners France, Ireland, Italy and the Netherlands. South Africa also imported significant quantities.
“The lifting of the ban does not guarantee that these old markets will still be open to British beef. However, contacts have been maintained in key areas,” Britain's National Farmers' Union said.
“The NFU believes that some of these customers will be keen to resume business with the UK,” it said.
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