020745 France Finds BSE-Risk Material in Beef

Paris - French slaughterhouses have failed to remove cattle parts banned for their risk of carrying "mad cow" disease, authorities said, days after the government refused to lift an illegal embargo on British beef.

French veterinary services found that over 10% of cattle carcasses about to enter the food chain still contained banned spinal cord, the food safety agency AFSSA said, detailing an inquiry conducted last year.

Spinal cord has been banned in the European Union since 1996 to protect consumers from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), the fatal human version of mad cow disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

The authorities, who stressed the inquiry was conducted before a French law came into force requiring slaughterhouses use vacuum pumps to strip carcasses instead of manual cutting, said residues were as big as 20 centimeters in 2% of cases.

Significant amounts of other so-called SRMs (specified risk materials) such as tonsils and thymus were also found in 32 abattoirs last year, the authorities said.

Britain's National Farmers Union (NFU) described the findings as "alarming," with the publication of the report coinciding with France facing a fine for its British beef ban.

"The arrogance of the French authorities in continuing to ban British beef on completely spurious grounds while at the same time failing to ensure its own beef meets health standards is appalling," NFU President Ben Gill said on Friday.

"This astounding level of hypocrisy is staggering even by French standards," he said in a statement.

The European Commission said it was sending France to court for a second time for failing to lift a ban on British beef imports, requesting a daily fine of 158,250 euros.

France said its position on the embargo remained unchanged in the light of the Commission's decision.

"How can France's ban on British beef be taken seriously when its own food safety body finds its own abattoirs are not properly addressing law designed to protect humans from diseases such as BSE?" Gill said.

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