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American Morning

Interview With Steven Grover

Aired December 26, 2003 - 07:17   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN ANCHOR: Well, tests from a British lab have now confirmed the beef industry's worst fear -- the presence of mad cow disease in the U.S. Federal investigators are now trying to trace the path of the infected cow from Washington State. But, how safe is America's meat supply? That's the question a lot of people are asking.
And joining us from Washington to talk about it, Steven Grover. He's vice president of health and safety for the National Restaurant Association.

Thanks for getting up with us this morning, sir.

STEVEN GROVER, NATIONAL RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION: Good morning.

GUPTA: I have a couple of questions. First of all, I know that you met with Secretary Ann Veneman earlier this year, this past August, you had some concerns then.

What were those concerns and how were they addressed?

GROVER: Well, we've been meeting over the period with the beef industry, the secretary of agriculture and the FDA regarding, at that time, the Canadian situation of finding the cow in Canada with BSE and trying to make sure that the firewalls were in place to prevent an occurrence, much as what happened in Great Britain and the United States.

GUPTA: And did you -- were you convinced those firewalls were in place?

GROVER: Absolutely. We have three very strong firewalls in place. In 1989 there was a ban of imported beef products. In 1990 the surveillance program was basically kicked in. And then in 1997 the FDA feed ban, which we feel is actually one of the most important safeguards. We've also started to begin conversations regarding a fourth firewall, which is the removal of what we would call the specified risk materials, from the human food supply.

GUPTA: Let's talk about that surveillance for a moment there, because that seems to be the big issue here. Just to put it in perspective, about 30,000 of the 300 million animals that are slaughtered every year in the United States for meat are actually inspected, according to some of the latest statistics.

GROVER: Right. GUPTA: And after the inspections occur, it takes several days for those to come back. Oftentimes that meat can find its way to a processing plant before the tests come back.

A lot of people hear that and a lot of people get scared by that.

How is the meat actually -- how do you keep that meat, after the tests come back, from getting into the processing plant and how does 30,000 out of 300 million account for an adequate surveillance plan?

GROVER: Well, there's two very important factors here. Number one, the meat is safe. There's no science to support that the meat actually has or can transmit this infection. Number two is the testing is a focused testing. The USDA focuses on the animals that are most likely to have or have contracted BSE, i.e., those animals which exhibit signs of illness. So rather than just simply randomly testing herds, they're really looking very hard at those animals that are most likely to have BSE.

So we believe that it's very important to understand that while it's not a large number, the testing is focused in such a way that we have the maximum chance of finding it, if it is in the U.S. herd. And clearly we believe that the efforts to improve that testing, to try to find it, to increase the number of samples, which they have in the last year -- and we talked about, since the Canadian outbreak or the Canadian cow became ill -- have paid results in actually finding it early.

GUPTA: One in 10,000 animals still getting tested. So that's a -- people think of that as a relatively small number.

The bottom line message, though, for people at home, and real specific here, you talk about the muscle cuts of beef being OK. But what about ground beef? Sometimes ground beef includes all sorts of different elements from any given animal.

GROVER: Well, I think we -- we had a number of conversations with Secretary Veneman and Dr. Crawford over at the FDA regarding our concerns. There was some testing earlier in the year that showed some levels of material out of advanced meat recovery. Many restaurants have basically banned the practice and we've also pushed for a removal of what we call the specified risk materials prior to grinding.

We are finding that that is being done today and clearly was done in this case. So I think the public at this point should be confident that the regulatory system is in place and working.

GUPTA: All right, Steven Grover, the National Restaurant Association, thanks for getting up with us this morning.

Happy holidays.

GROVER: Thank you.

Happy holidays to you.

GUPTA: Yes.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired December 26, 2003 - 07:17   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN ANCHOR: Well, tests from a British lab have now confirmed the beef industry's worst fear -- the presence of mad cow disease in the U.S. Federal investigators are now trying to trace the path of the infected cow from Washington State. But, how safe is America's meat supply? That's the question a lot of people are asking.
And joining us from Washington to talk about it, Steven Grover. He's vice president of health and safety for the National Restaurant Association.

Thanks for getting up with us this morning, sir.

STEVEN GROVER, NATIONAL RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION: Good morning.

GUPTA: I have a couple of questions. First of all, I know that you met with Secretary Ann Veneman earlier this year, this past August, you had some concerns then.

What were those concerns and how were they addressed?

GROVER: Well, we've been meeting over the period with the beef industry, the secretary of agriculture and the FDA regarding, at that time, the Canadian situation of finding the cow in Canada with BSE and trying to make sure that the firewalls were in place to prevent an occurrence, much as what happened in Great Britain and the United States.

GUPTA: And did you -- were you convinced those firewalls were in place?

GROVER: Absolutely. We have three very strong firewalls in place. In 1989 there was a ban of imported beef products. In 1990 the surveillance program was basically kicked in. And then in 1997 the FDA feed ban, which we feel is actually one of the most important safeguards. We've also started to begin conversations regarding a fourth firewall, which is the removal of what we would call the specified risk materials, from the human food supply.

GUPTA: Let's talk about that surveillance for a moment there, because that seems to be the big issue here. Just to put it in perspective, about 30,000 of the 300 million animals that are slaughtered every year in the United States for meat are actually inspected, according to some of the latest statistics.

GROVER: Right. GUPTA: And after the inspections occur, it takes several days for those to come back. Oftentimes that meat can find its way to a processing plant before the tests come back.

A lot of people hear that and a lot of people get scared by that.

How is the meat actually -- how do you keep that meat, after the tests come back, from getting into the processing plant and how does 30,000 out of 300 million account for an adequate surveillance plan?

GROVER: Well, there's two very important factors here. Number one, the meat is safe. There's no science to support that the meat actually has or can transmit this infection. Number two is the testing is a focused testing. The USDA focuses on the animals that are most likely to have or have contracted BSE, i.e., those animals which exhibit signs of illness. So rather than just simply randomly testing herds, they're really looking very hard at those animals that are most likely to have BSE.

So we believe that it's very important to understand that while it's not a large number, the testing is focused in such a way that we have the maximum chance of finding it, if it is in the U.S. herd. And clearly we believe that the efforts to improve that testing, to try to find it, to increase the number of samples, which they have in the last year -- and we talked about, since the Canadian outbreak or the Canadian cow became ill -- have paid results in actually finding it early.

GUPTA: One in 10,000 animals still getting tested. So that's a -- people think of that as a relatively small number.

The bottom line message, though, for people at home, and real specific here, you talk about the muscle cuts of beef being OK. But what about ground beef? Sometimes ground beef includes all sorts of different elements from any given animal.

GROVER: Well, I think we -- we had a number of conversations with Secretary Veneman and Dr. Crawford over at the FDA regarding our concerns. There was some testing earlier in the year that showed some levels of material out of advanced meat recovery. Many restaurants have basically banned the practice and we've also pushed for a removal of what we call the specified risk materials prior to grinding.

We are finding that that is being done today and clearly was done in this case. So I think the public at this point should be confident that the regulatory system is in place and working.

GUPTA: All right, Steven Grover, the National Restaurant Association, thanks for getting up with us this morning.

Happy holidays.

GROVER: Thank you.

Happy holidays to you.

GUPTA: Yes.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com