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Prions Panel Issues Qualified Approval on Conditions for Resuming Beef Imports from USA and Canada
The Food Safety Commission's Prions Expert Committee, on October 31, agreed to conclude that "the difference of risk is extremely small," providing that the beef export verification program is complied with to remove special risk parts of beef from cattle of 20 months and younger.
The draft report of the committee was approved by the Food Safety Commission on November 2. The commission will formally submit a report to both the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) after four weeks of public comments. The committee chairman Yasuhiro Yoshikawa (professor of the University of Tokyo Graduate School), at a press conference following the meeting, emphasized the limitations of making evaluation saying, "There were limits to adequately clarifying the effectiveness of measures (in two countries). It is difficult to scientifically answer the question of equivalency." At the same time, he cast a question about the way the inquiry had been made by saying, "the inquiry should have been posed with an explicitly drawn up action plan (describing concrete steps for import resumption) tabled alongside."
By pointing out the problem of having had to evaluate based on the premised compliance with safety measures, the committee's conclusion suggests it was difficult to make scientific evaluation because data from both the USA and Canada had much to be clarified in both quantum and qualitative terms. It added to warn that "Should the premise not be complied with, the result of evaluation would be different."
It also underlined the gravity of responsibility of the government saying that it should be the government duty to report the inspected results of the efficacy of the export verification programs and the state of compliance to the committee as well as to the general public.
Additionally, it made three point demands, i.e. i) to inspect the oversight regime as the state of packing houses is not clear in relation to the removal of specific risk materials; ii) that adequate tests continue including healthy cattle; iii) total banning of the feed use of specific risk materials of cattle.
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