January 19, 2006

McDonald's argues for tighter feed rule in US

Fastfood company McDonald's is calling on the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to tighten its proposed changes to the 1997 feed rule.

The buyer of more beef than any other eatery in the US said that the most effective way to ensure that the beef is of the highest quality is to create a system that ensures that cattle that are not exposed to the disease, adding that currently, "there are still legal avenues for ruminants to consume potentially contaminated ruminant protein," it said.

McDonald's pointed out that given the long incubation period of BSE, FDA should implement immediately additional measures that will reduce the risk of BSE recycling in the US cattle herd.

Specifically, the company warned against using the 18-month enhanced surveillance as a justification to relax laws. While the enhanced surveillance provides an 18-month snapshot, it pointed out, US and Canadian cattle could still have been exposed to BSE and that "the current feed controls contain leaks".

McDonald's added that specified risk materials and dead livestock should be removed from all animal feed and that legal exemptions that allow ruminant protein to be fed back to ruminants should be discontinued. It also opposed FDA's provision that would allow tissues from ruminants older than 30 months into the feed chain.

The company then suggested that government agencies work with the academia and industry to research into methods to inactivate transmissible spongiform encephalopathy agents, which then may allow a product to be used and even fed to animals without risk, and to find alternative uses for animal by-products.