The American way for Europe
01/01/2001
Euro FDA could maintain sound science, drive contamination control market
Mark A. DeSorbo
NICE, France—European Union (EU) leaders at a December summit here approved a European Commission proposal for the establishment of an agency similar to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to ensure food safety from "farm to fork."
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Johnston: "When consumers do not have confidence in the safety agencies, they will not have assurance in the food products. "
David Byrne, EU Health and Consumer Affairs Commissioner, told the Agence France Presse that approval paves the way for needed legislation in Brussels, Belgium, the first phase of the agency's establishment, which began in mid-December.
The EU estimates that the agency will be comprised of 15 representatives from EU food agencies and eight specific divisions. It will eventually employ more than 300 people and have a budget of about 40 million Euros ($34.4 million). No decision has been made on where the agency will be based, but officials from France, Germany, Spain, Finland and Italy have come forward offering their homelands as possibilities.
"The EU has not asked [the United States] for formal advice, nor have we offered it, but on many occasions we have met informally with members of the EU and the subject has come up in discussions," says Katie Pritchard, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS).
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Establishing a European food safety agency has become a top priority in the wake of a resurgence of mad cow disease, a fatal brain-destroying ailment that leaves cattle trembling and shuttering, unable to walk. All told, about 125 cases have been discovered. The human variant, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, has killed 90 people.
About two out of 1,000 French-raised cows considered at risk for mad cow disease are infected with the fatal brain-wasting ailment, according to a study by the French national food safety agency, AFSSA.
A broader screening program was launched by the AFSSA in August, which has since carried out 15,000 tests on animals considered to have a higher-than-average risk for the disease: cows that died naturally, and cows that had to be killed after an illness or accident. The AFSSA said it had discovered 32 cases of mad cow disease since launching the program, in which the cow's brain is probed for traces of an infectious protein, prion.
"We're not surprised," Didier Calavas, a member of AFSSA's epidemiology unit, told The Associated Press. "The results line up with our expectations."
One of the first measures EU farm ministers took was to order the testing of millions of cattle aged over 30 months for BSE as well as ban meat-based animal feed that was blamed for spreading the disease. That ban may be extended indefinitely, while France has initiated removing all injured cattle from the food chain.
Fears of mad cow disease have caused Poland to ban beef imported from EU countries, but the government is reassuring citizens that Polish beef is safe to eat. Japan banned all imports of meat-based animal feed, including some pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. A poll taken by a Swedish newspaper, the daily Dagens Nyheter, indicates that 62 percent of Swedes are avoiding imported beef for fear of mad cow disease. The poll also indicated that 72 percent believe the disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, could break out in Sweden, too, but consumption of domestic beef remained almost unchanged.
In late November, President Jacques Chirac of France told the Associated Press that his main objective was to push the issue of food safety at the summit. Chirac's comments echo those of Byrne, who said it was urgent that the food agency is created quickly "to provide an element of legitimacy" to food quality claims issued by producers and scientists.
Kelly Johnston, executive vice president for government affairs and communication for National Food Processors Association (NFPA; Washington, DC), agrees, saying when consumers do not have confidence in the safety agencies, they will not have assurance in the food products.
The NFPA and its European affiliates like the Food and Drink Federation of Ireland, believe that an agency like the FDA would allay the "serious lack of confidence in food safety there," Johnston says.
"Initially, people were told that mad cow disease could not leap from one animal to another animal," he adds. "Like the FDA, what we try to do is maintain sound science and keep politics out of food safety policy making. If Europe bases an agency with science and insulates politics, it will be very attractive to food processors and retailers in Europe."
Mad cow disease scares exploded in England in 1996, and the European Union banned British beef exports. It lifted the ban in August 1999 after safety measures were implemented, but France has maintained the embargo.