February 20, 2012
The permission to use lactic acid as an antimicrobial treatment on beef sold in the EU as stated in a draft EU regulation is being sought to be changed by the US.
A top US trade official was also expected to discuss the regulation with EU officials this week in Brussels, according to informed sources.
Specifically, the US takes issue with language in the current draft of the regulation that would only allow lactic acid to be used on whole, half and quarter bovine carcasses, but not cuts of beef or beef trimmings, sources said.
A US beef industry source said the current language is too restrictive in light of the fact that US beef producers use lactic acid at various stages throughout the production process, including on individual cuts of beef. Applying lactic acid only to carcasses would limit the scientific benefits of using it as an antimicrobial treatment, this source argued.
Another informed source pointed out that the USDA original application filed with the European Commission in December 2010 was for the use of lactic acid on beef carcasses, cuts and trimmings.
The lactic acid regulation is important because of its informal linkage to a 2008 bilateral memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the US and EU on beef trade. The Obama administration has taken the position that the failure by EU member states to approve the lactic acid wash would make it impossible for the US to take advantage of an expanded tariff-rate quota (TRQ) the EU is expected to open up in August under the MOU. The European Parliament is currently in the process of approving the TRQ increase.
Islam Siddiqui, the chief agricultural negotiator in the Office of the US Trade Representative, was slated to meet on February 16 in Brussels with European Commission officials to discuss beef trade issues, according to USTR. A spokesman for the commission's Directorate General for Health and Consumer Policy said the lactic acid issue would be discussed at the meeting.
Joe Scheule, a spokesman for US Meat Export Federation, said his group was pleased that Siddiqui planned to discuss the lactic acid regulation with his EU counterparts. He stressed that it is important to "get this language right" and make sure it is consistent with US industry practices.
The regulation is currently being drafted by the commission and EU member states in meetings of the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health. That committee, which consists of member state exports, is slated to discuss a third revised draft of regulation on February 22, according to a public agenda of the meeting.
But an EU industry source stressed that the limited scope of the regulation is necessary in order to win approval by member states, given that many are cautious about allowing antimicrobial treatments because they do not want to see a reduction in hygiene in beef processing as a result.
"If we ask for more than this, we won't get anything," this source said. According to this source, only three member states - Denmark, Netherlands and the UK - fully supported the regulation at the last meeting of the standing committee in mid-January, while eight member states including France opposed it.
That said, the third revised draft of the regulation to be presented at the February 22 meeting contains new language aimed at appeasing member states who had sought a labelling requirement for beef treated with lactic acid, this source said.
In lieu of a labelling requirement, the new draft requires slaughterhouses to document whether lactic acid was used to treat their beef and pass that information along to the company that purchases the beef, according to a leaked copy of the draft. The EU industry source described this provision as a "business-to-business" information-sharing requirement.
The European Commission has also pressed the US government to issue the rule, and several member states and members of the European Parliament until recently had informally linked their willingness to approve the TRQ increase with publication of the rule.
