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Mr. John Smith
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will lift the ban on the consumption of cattle aged over 30 months. [17048]
Mr. Rooker
No. This measure was introduced by the previous Government on the basis of SEAC advice that meat from animals over 30 months of age should be deboned under official supervision. There were practical difficulties in implementing this advice and a ban was introduced instead. Nothing we have learned about the links between BSE and CJD in the past year suggests that that action was in any way inappropriate.