May 24, 2004

US Meat Packer Group Rejects Notion Canadian Beef Not Safe

The notion that Canadian beef is dangerous to U.S consumers, which was brought up by some U.S. lawmakers Thursday, was rejected by the American Meat Institute in a press release Friday.
 
The AMI said in the release that the questions regarding Canadian beef were procedural questions, not food safety questions. The AMI said while it may be appropriate to examine the procedures followed, "it is disingenuous" to suggest a need for public concern.
 
AMI President J. Patrick Boyle said in the release: "Consumers in the United States are the beneficiaries of an efficient North American meat industry that produces safe and affordable products. Give our integrated North American industry, attacks on Canadian products are also attacks on U.S. products."
 
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad-cow disease, is an extremely rare, non-contagious animal disease that develops in older cattle. It said the agent that is thought to cause BSE has never been found in beef, no matter what country the cattle came from, the AMI said in the release.
 
AMI labeled the statements by U.S. lawmakers that claimed that the Canadian-produced beef was unsafe as political rhetoric. The group also accused the U.S. lawmakers who claimed Canadian beef was unsafe of ignoring the science of been safety for their own political gain, according to the press release.
 
The U.S. meat industry fully supports open and free trade and voluntary country-of-origin labels, the AMI said in the release. The group requested that the "scientifically inaccurate" statements regarding Canadian beef stop, and pointed out that Canada was the only major beef trading partner that did not cease all imports of U.S. beef after the first case of BSE was discovered in the U.S. in December.