Beef-on-bone ban must stay

23 January 1999

Beef-on-bone ban ‘must stay’

THE Chief Medical Officer has warned the Government that beef on the bone still poses a danger to the public and therefore a ban must remain.

In a report to the agriculture minister Nick Brown, Professor Liam Donaldson warns there is still a risk that beef on the bone can transmit BSE to humans.

Prof Donaldson concludes that although the danger from eating beef on the bone is close to zero, lifting the ban is not a risk he could countenance.

The beef on the bone ban was introduced in December 1997 after the governments advisers reported a very small risk of BSE infection through the nervous tissues in the spinal column of joints of beef on the bone.