Direct and indirect import and trading of food made from cow meat, carcasses and entrails from countries plagued by a contagious disease are now prohibited, the Ministry of Health and the State Administration for Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine announced Tuesday.
Dairy products are exempted from the ban, Xinhua news agency reported. The list of banned products includes cattle brain, spinal cord, eye, meat, bone, bowels and placenta, as well as foods made from the materials, such as hamburger and canned beef, Xinhua reported.
The notice orders all importers and traders of the products to immediately stop processing and trading activities, retract and destroy all sold commodities, and send reports to concerned departments.
The Ministry of Health also called on public health departments to provide consumers with information about the disease.
The “mad cow disease” was first found in Britain in 1985 and may cause a similar ailment in humans, known as Creutzfeld-Jacob disease. According to a February 14 report by the Ministry of Agriculture, cattle in China are mostly fed straw and soybean meal and do not have access to meat and bone meal that is linked to the spread of the disease. Because animal entrails are commonly used in Chinese dishes, there is not enough offal to be processed into animal feed, said Xinhua.
(eastday.com 04/04/2001)
