Hot Dog! Something I'm not eating after reading this! Mad Cow Disease!

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Sat Dec-27-03 12:53 AM
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Hot Dog! Something I'm not eating after reading this! Mad Cow Disease!

US Violates WHO Guidelines
For Mad Cow Disease
A Comparison of North American and European Safeguards
By Michael Greger, M.D.
For the Organic Consumers Association
Updated July 15, 2003
12-26-03

http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow/GregerBSE

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Although food containing mechanically separated beef must be labeled as such, there are no labels on food in restaurants.<103> So people could be exposed to spinal cord tissue in hot dogs, sausages, hamburgers, and ground meat products when dining out.<104> Although Europe heeded the World Health Organization's warnings and banned such meat recovery systems years ago, these devices remain one of the best opportunities for prion-infected tissues to enter the human food supply in North America.<105> In 1994, meat processors began using a new technology, called advanced meat recovery (AMR), to help "increase yields and profitability."<106> These systems also extrude meat from the remains of the carcass under pressure, but without crushing the bones.<107> The American Meat Institute describes the process: "Just as fruit processors use machines to remove fruit from peels thoroughly and efficiently, meat companies use similar equipment to remove meat from some hard to trim bones."<108>

The end-product varies from a ground beef-like texture to the consistency of thick tomato sauce.<109> Prior to 1994, only cattle skeletal muscle, tongue, diaphragm, heart, and esophagus could be labeled as beef.<110> But by the end of that year, the USDA had already amended the definition of "meat" to include the product of advanced meat recovery machinery.<111> This meant that unlike mechanically separated meat, AMR meat was considered 100% beef and could be labeled as such.<112> With no special labeling requirements, adoption of AMR machinery spread rapidly throughout the industry, largely replacing mechanical separation equipment.<113>
Today, the majority of cattle are now processed using AMR.<114> Over twenty thousand tons of AMR beef is produced every year in the U.S., valued at over $100 million.<115> AMR beef typically ends up as a hidden ingredient in hamburgers, hot dogs, sausages, and beef jerky, as well as part of ground beef in meatballs, pizza toppings and taco fillings.<116> The danger, once again, is that if the spinal cord isn't removed before entering one of these machines, it is bound to be incorporated into the meat that is produced.<117>
Companies are supposed to remove the animals' brains and spinal cords before processing the carcasses through the AMR machinery, but getting out all of the spinal cord can be challenging. "It requires special tools and skills," says Glenn Schmidt, a meat scientist at Colorado State University. "The workers have to reach down to the neck region of the carcass to remove the spinal cord by scraping or suction, and sometimes they don't get all of it."<118>
In 1997, the consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen obtained USDA inspection records through the Freedom of Information Act showing that a significant percentage of AMR samples were turning up contaminated with central nervous system (CNS) tissue (brain or spinal cord).<119> Instead of simply requiring that spinal columns be removed from carcasses before being placed in advanced meat recovery systems, the USDA responded by merely directing its inspectors to continue testing samples of AMR meat for the presence of central nervous tissue.<120>

Despite their promise to initiate testing, the USDA took fewer than 60 samples over the next 3 years, yet still found spinal cord in a number of them.<121> The first major study of AMR meat was published in 2001.<122> Colorado State University researchers found that "well over 50%" of the samples of AMR beef from neck bones were contaminated with CNS tissue.<122> Then they went to 7 major suppliers of large fast food chains across the country to sample hamburger patties. Six out of seven suppliers had detectable CNS tissue in their burgers.<123>

The USDA again responded only with promises to do more testing.<124> The results of the USDA's tests were made public in 2002.<125> Eighty- eight percent of the meat processors (30 out of 34) were producing AMR beef which contained unacceptable nervous tissue, and almost all of the samples (96.5%) contained bone marrow,<126> which may also be infectious.<127>

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I'm joining the Vegetarian Party!