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When
the first – and only – case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy
was discovered in the United States last December, USDA
erected new firewalls to prevent the spread of the disease
and to allay fears of U.S. consumers and U.S. beef-importing
countries. One of the firewalls was to ban the use of small
intestines from beef cattle to make casings for sausage
and other meat products.
The
North American Natural Casing Association is calling for
the prohibition against the use of beef intestine as a natural
casing to be revised. “Politics and the USDA bureaucracy
are about to deny the heartland of America its traditional
sausages in natural casings made from beef,” the NANCA stated
in a release.
Poor
science and politics of the upcoming U.S. presidential election
make for a bureaucratic standstill, the group claims. “Sausage
makers in America are denied access to sources of beef casings
that are freely available to their competitors in Europe
and around the world,” the release continued. “When the
single Canadian-born BSE cow was found in the U.S. in 2003,
the USDA immediately prohibited the use of all small intestines
from beef slaughtered after January 2004. But U.S. scientists
and other international regulatory agencies have since identified
only a small part of the beef intestine that could have
BSE risk. That part isn't even used for sausage casing.
The USDA even refuses to allow the import of the desperately
needed beef casing from countries it has declared as BSE-free.
-- those same countries from which European and sausage
makers in the rest of the world, get their beef casing.”
The
USDA has told the sausage making industry that it is a political
decision that cannot be changed until after the election,
the NANCA said. By that time, inventories of beef casings
produced before January 2004 will be gone and so will traditional
sausages, such as ring bologna, knockwurst, liver sausage,
kiska, metwurst, blood sausage, and holsteiner. “The situation
is urgent,” NANCA said. “Sure, there may be artificial substitutes
for natural beef casings, but who wants something artificial.
Our grandparents wouldn't have.”
The
casing group claims that the real issue is about the survival
of many small meat processors and the jobs they bring. “If
our politicians really care about American values, jobs,
and small business, they would lift the ban on beef casing
imports from BSE-free countries,” the release declared.
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