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CNN Saturday Morning News

Interview with Caroline Smith Dewaal

Aired December 27, 2003 - 09:30   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.


HOLLY FIRFER, CNN ANCHOR: The mad cow scare in America is raising fears among beef consumers both at home and abroad. The U.S. has lost nearly all of its beef exports. More than a dozen countries stopped buying American beef.
One economist says the U.S. beef industry could lose $6 billion from lost exports and falling domestic prices.

Now we want to talk more about the mad cow scare and the safety of American beef.

Joining us, joining us is Caroline Smith DeWaal. She's director of food safety for the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Welcome.

CAROLINE SMITH DEWAAL, DIRECTOR OF FOOD SAFETY, CENTER FOR SCIENCE IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST: Good morning, Holly.

FIRFER: First off, I know that we've been saying muscle cuts, the meat that you and I eat in a steak and ground beef, is safe, because BSE, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, does not reside there. But people still have the question, Should I eat meat?

DEWAAL: Well, the first point -- I think the most important point is that the risk is minimal. And the risk actually of dying from heart disease from eating too much beef is much larger than the risk of getting the human form of mad cow disease.

That said, there are -- there is beef that is safer to eat and there's beef that is less safe to eat, given that we have mad cow disease in the country now.

FIRFER: Well, it's my understanding that where you would find BSE in the spinal cord, in the brain, the central nervous system of the animal, that is not rendered for human consumption in the United States. Are you saying that some of that could get into the meat supply?

DEWAAL: Unfortunately, there is a process, it's called advanced meat recovery, where bits of meat are stripped off the spinal column. And sometimes it also incorporates bits of the spinal cord or nervous tissue, which is known to carry the infectious agent for BSE if it comes from a sick cow. So our concern is really not the one cow that's been discovered. It's the fact that there may be other cows that were exposed to the same contaminated feed that are right now in the system. They may be sent to slaughter plants. And that meat, their bones might be sent through these systems.

Now, the products, the beef products from AMR look a lot like ground beef. And they get mixed into ground beef. They get turned into hot dogs or sausages, pizza toppings, or taco fillings. And so they can show up in a lot of items consumers might eat.

We've been urging USDA to ban the use of the spinal columns and neck bones in these machines in order to avoid this risk.

FIRFER: It is my understanding, though, that in 1997, they did put a ban on using that even in animal feed. You cannot use that at a rendering plant to turn it around to feed any kind of cow. So are you saying, then, that perhaps it is getting into the food supply that we are eating? Because I don't want to scare our viewers into not eating beef at all. Because the USDA does say it is safe.

DEWAAL: The muscle cuts, the steaks and roasts, especially those that are boneless, are virtually safe. I mean, there's no scientific evidence that those would carry the disease.

But this meat product -- and we've been warning USDA about this problem since 1997 -- this meat product that is produced and then distributed all over the country and can find its way into many products is -- can be in the human food supply.

When USDA surveyed plants that were using this equipment, they found that 35 percent of the meat samples the government took had central nervous system tissue in it. So that is a concern.

It's true that they've banned this -- the same tissue from being fed to beef, but they haven't banned it from being fed to humans. And that's what we've been asking USDA to do.

CALLEBS: Let me ask you about this specific incidence. The USDA is doing trace-forwards and trace-backs. They're trying to find out where that cow came from. They've found two -- her two calves. They've quarantined those farms.

But it's a lot of paperwork. It's taking a lot of time. How do you think the government is doing? Do we need a more advanced tracking system of these animals, like a microchip, even though the USDA says they're working on it? Is this -- are they working fast enough? Are they doing a good job?

DEWAAL: Holly, it's so unfortunate that USDA didn't take this problem more seriously earlier. We needed a mandatory animal identification system. Many other countries are using it, many countries who have had a history of BSE, but many countries who don't, because they need to be able to track the animals.

Canada had (UNINTELLIGIBLE) instated one several years before their cow was found.

Our situation is different. We don't have mandatory animal tracking systems. And that means that this trace-back will take longer than it should we had had -- if USDA had had more foresight.

FIRFER: All right, we'll be following this story for quite some time, I believe. Caroline Smith DeWaal, Center for the Science in the Public Interest. Thank you for your time today.

DEWAAL: Thank you, Holly.

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 27, 2003 - 09:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HOLLY FIRFER, CNN ANCHOR: The mad cow scare in America is raising fears among beef consumers both at home and abroad. The U.S. has lost nearly all of its beef exports. More than a dozen countries stopped buying American beef.
One economist says the U.S. beef industry could lose $6 billion from lost exports and falling domestic prices.

Now we want to talk more about the mad cow scare and the safety of American beef.

Joining us, joining us is Caroline Smith DeWaal. She's director of food safety for the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Welcome.

CAROLINE SMITH DEWAAL, DIRECTOR OF FOOD SAFETY, CENTER FOR SCIENCE IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST: Good morning, Holly.

FIRFER: First off, I know that we've been saying muscle cuts, the meat that you and I eat in a steak and ground beef, is safe, because BSE, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, does not reside there. But people still have the question, Should I eat meat?

DEWAAL: Well, the first point -- I think the most important point is that the risk is minimal. And the risk actually of dying from heart disease from eating too much beef is much larger than the risk of getting the human form of mad cow disease.

That said, there are -- there is beef that is safer to eat and there's beef that is less safe to eat, given that we have mad cow disease in the country now.

FIRFER: Well, it's my understanding that where you would find BSE in the spinal cord, in the brain, the central nervous system of the animal, that is not rendered for human consumption in the United States. Are you saying that some of that could get into the meat supply?

DEWAAL: Unfortunately, there is a process, it's called advanced meat recovery, where bits of meat are stripped off the spinal column. And sometimes it also incorporates bits of the spinal cord or nervous tissue, which is known to carry the infectious agent for BSE if it comes from a sick cow. So our concern is really not the one cow that's been discovered. It's the fact that there may be other cows that were exposed to the same contaminated feed that are right now in the system. They may be sent to slaughter plants. And that meat, their bones might be sent through these systems.

Now, the products, the beef products from AMR look a lot like ground beef. And they get mixed into ground beef. They get turned into hot dogs or sausages, pizza toppings, or taco fillings. And so they can show up in a lot of items consumers might eat.

We've been urging USDA to ban the use of the spinal columns and neck bones in these machines in order to avoid this risk.

FIRFER: It is my understanding, though, that in 1997, they did put a ban on using that even in animal feed. You cannot use that at a rendering plant to turn it around to feed any kind of cow. So are you saying, then, that perhaps it is getting into the food supply that we are eating? Because I don't want to scare our viewers into not eating beef at all. Because the USDA does say it is safe.

DEWAAL: The muscle cuts, the steaks and roasts, especially those that are boneless, are virtually safe. I mean, there's no scientific evidence that those would carry the disease.

But this meat product -- and we've been warning USDA about this problem since 1997 -- this meat product that is produced and then distributed all over the country and can find its way into many products is -- can be in the human food supply.

When USDA surveyed plants that were using this equipment, they found that 35 percent of the meat samples the government took had central nervous system tissue in it. So that is a concern.

It's true that they've banned this -- the same tissue from being fed to beef, but they haven't banned it from being fed to humans. And that's what we've been asking USDA to do.

CALLEBS: Let me ask you about this specific incidence. The USDA is doing trace-forwards and trace-backs. They're trying to find out where that cow came from. They've found two -- her two calves. They've quarantined those farms.

But it's a lot of paperwork. It's taking a lot of time. How do you think the government is doing? Do we need a more advanced tracking system of these animals, like a microchip, even though the USDA says they're working on it? Is this -- are they working fast enough? Are they doing a good job?

DEWAAL: Holly, it's so unfortunate that USDA didn't take this problem more seriously earlier. We needed a mandatory animal identification system. Many other countries are using it, many countries who have had a history of BSE, but many countries who don't, because they need to be able to track the animals.

Canada had (UNINTELLIGIBLE) instated one several years before their cow was found.

Our situation is different. We don't have mandatory animal tracking systems. And that means that this trace-back will take longer than it should we had had -- if USDA had had more foresight.

FIRFER: All right, we'll be following this story for quite some time, I believe. Caroline Smith DeWaal, Center for the Science in the Public Interest. Thank you for your time today.

DEWAAL: Thank you, Holly.

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