January 15, 2007

Japan may scale back inspection of U.S. beef imports

The Japanese government was cited as saying Monday it may end the current practice of inspecting all boxes of beef imports from the United States over fears of mad- cow disease.
Officials from the agriculture and health ministries were cited as saying at a public hearing with consumers and importers that based on the inspections of U.S. beef imports thus far and those of U.S. meat-processing plants, the government has found no structural or systematic problems on the part of the United States.
Hideshi Michino, who heads the office for the safety of imported foods at the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, was quoted as saying, "We will sort out findings to decide what to do" over the practice of opening all boxes containing U.S. beef for safety checks. LINK

January 15, 2007

Update on feed enforcement activities to limit the spread of BSE

To help prevent the establishment and amplification of BSE through feed in the United States, FDA implemented a final rule that prohibits the use of most mammalian protein in feeds for ruminant animals. This rule, Title 21 Part 589.2000 of the Code of Federal Regulations, called the Ruminant Feed Ban, became effective on August 4, 1997.

The following information is an update on FDA enforcement activities regarding the ruminant feed ban. FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) has assembled data from the inspections that have been conducted and whose final inspection report has been recorded in the FDA's inspection database as of January 6, 2007. As of January 6, 2007, FDA had received over 50,000 inspection reports. The majority of these inspections (around 68%) were conducted by State feed safety officials, with the remainder conducted by FDA officials.
Inspections conducted by FDA or State investigators are classified to reflect the compliance status at the time of the inspection based upon the objectionable conditions documented. These inspection conclusions are reported as Official Action Indicated (OAI), Voluntary Action Indicated (VAI), or No Action Indicated (NAI).
An OAI inspection classification occurs when significant objectionable conditions or practices were found and regulatory sanctions are warranted in order to address the establishment's lack of compliance with the regulation. An example of an OAI inspection classification would be findings of manufacturing procedures insufficient to ensure that ruminant feed is not contaminated with prohibited material. Inspections classified with OAI violations will be promptly re-inspected following the regulatory sanctions to determine whether adequate corrective actions have been implemented. LINK

Note that there was NOT 100% compliance from using banned materials in cattle feed.