Risk of BSE in ox tongue is very small

Tuesday 24 June 2003

Agency not advising against eating ox tongue

Ref: 2003/0389

The Food Standards Agency reported in October 2002 that preliminary results from Agency-sponsored research had shown that cow tonsil may become infected with BSE in experimentally infected animals.

A new study carried out for the Agency has shown that traces of tonsil in cattle tongue (normally known as ox tongue) remain after processing.

Three-quarters of the tongues examined in this study had some tonsil tissue present. Even when all visible tonsil tissue was removed, research has found that very small amounts remained in the majority of tongues tested.

However, the Government's advisory committee on BSE, the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee (SEAC), today agreed that although there are some uncertainties, the risk is likely to be very small.

The Agency is therefore not advising against eating ox tongue.

The finding of BSE infectivity in tonsil last year was part of the ongoing study programme into BSE infectivity in cattle by the Veterinary Laboratories Agency's (VLA).

New tests used in the programme are considered to be several hundred times more sensitive than those previously applied using mice. They involve injecting a range of tissues from experimentally infected cattle into the brains of BSE-free cows to determine if the tissues carry infectivity.

The risk is considered low because:

• With the large decline in the BSE epidemic, the number of infected cattle entering the food chain in the UK is very small.
• The long incubation period (45 months) in the one cow (out of five) that succumbed to BSE in the VLA programme, having been clinically infected from tonsil tissue, suggests that the level of infectivity in tonsil is low.
• Tonsil is specified risk material (SRM) in cattle from the age of six months in the UK and 12 months in most other EU states. SRM is that part of the animal most likely to contain BSE and must be removed, stained and disposed of safely.
• The actual quantity of tonsil tissue present after the tongue has been removed is likely to be small.
• BSE controls on animal feed have been in place since 1996.

Information provided by the Meat Livestock Commission indicates that all tongues from the 2.1 million cattle slaughtered annually in the UK go for human consumption.

The total annual UK sales of ox tongue are 2,300 tonnes, 1,800 of UK origin and 500 tonnes imported. Around 80% of UK tongue production is in canned form, and another 10% is cooked, sliced and vacuum-packed.

The latest FSA-funded study considered by SEAC can be viewed directly on the SEAC website.

Note to editors:

The obvious visible elements of tonsil tissue, which is regarded as SRM, should be removed from the tongue, and the Meat Hygiene Service is being instructed to remind its staff about the need to enforce this rule. To remove all tonsil tissue, including microscopic components, would be impracticable.