040103 New Beef Policies Will Aid Consumer Confidence

Washington - Following USDA's announcement of stricter policies regarding slaughter of non- ambulatory disabled cattle and specified risk materials, American Meat Institute said it believes the additional safeguards "will surely maintain consumer confidence in the safety of the US beef supply."

USDA also said it would implement a national animal ID system to track the nation's livestock from point of origin through food production, an initiative AMI has strongly supported.

"It is understandable, and in fact prudent, for USDA to review our nation's regulatory firewalls that protect against BSE," AMI President J. Patrick Boyle told a national audience of reporters and editors Tuesday.

"Although these extraordinary new measures are very aggressive and indeed go well beyond international standards, we recognize that they were developed in an effort to protect our cattle herd and to reinforce consumer confidence in beef safety."

Boyle urged US trading partners to take notice of the swift federal response. "In the wake of these announcements, our trading partners must consider an immediate reestablishment of beef trade with the United States," he said.

In a December 31, 2003 release, AMI also pointed out that some of the changes to slaughter practices Ag Secretary Ann Veneman announced on Tuesday are no longer in use in the industry:

-- USDA will require that beef carcasses and beef products from animals undergoing BSE testing must be withheld from the food supply pending test results. "This is already a routine practice at many of the nation’s beef plants," AMI noted.

-- Air-injected stunners are officially banned, although such systems are no longer manufactured and are not in use in the industry, the group says.

-- As for the new ban on mechanically separated meat, the group says that's a product that is no longer produced in the industry - having been supplanted more than a decade ago by product from advanced meat recovery systems.

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