BSE and beef

A number of BSE controls are in place in the UK designed to make beef and beef products safer for people to eat

Removal of Specified Risk Material
The main BSE control is the removal of the parts of a cattle carcase most likely to contain BSE infectivity. These parts are known as Specified Risk Material. Similar controls apply in all other European Union countries. Details of these controls can be found at the links below.

The Reinforced Feed Ban
It is illegal for any farmed livestock to be fed material that contains meat and bone meal, which is thought to have caused the spread of BSE in the 1980s.

BSE testing
In the UK cattle aged over 48 months at slaughter must receive a negative BSE test result before they are allowed to enter the food supply. Any cattle that do not test negative are banned from the food supply and destroyed.

All cattle born or reared in the UK before the introduction of the reinforced feed ban in August 1996 are banned from being used as food and must not be sent to a slaughterhouse.

These controls are based on current scientific knowledge and are designed to reduce the risk to consumers to an extremely low level. The risk from BSE cannot, however, be removed completely.

The Food Standards Agency's Meat Hygiene Service and local authorities enforce the controls on SRM and BSE testing. Animal Health enforces the controls on animal feed.