Food Standards Agency
Sunday 7 September 2008
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What is RSS?Friday 25 April 2008
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has welcomed new legislation that comes into force tomorrow, Saturday 26 April. The legislation raises the age at which bovine vertebral column (VC) is classified as Specified Risk Material (SRM) from 24 to 30 months.
David Statham, FSA Director of Consumer Protection and Enforcement Group, said: ‘The FSA has worked hard to return the limit to 30 months – this is good news for the UK meat industry. The age at which VC becomes SRM was lowered in the UK when SRM controls were harmonised across the EU. This was a requirement for the UK to resume exporting beef to the EU.’
This change restores the VC SRM controls in the UK to the pre-May 2006 position when harmonisation took place.
This means that butchers will be able to sell beef on the bone that is up to 30 months old without the restrictions imposed by the previous VC SRM controls. This applies to carcasses of cattle slaughtered on or after 26 April. Vertebral column in 24–30 month bovines slaughtered before this date should still be treated as SRM.
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