"Which Intestines for Food and Cosmetics"
The Food and Drug Administration recently
reopened comments about their policy of allowing some
intestines, but not others, into the U.S. food supply.
When the first few cases of mad cow disease started
popping up, the FDA's gut reaction was to ban all guts
from food and personal care products, but in 2005,
USDA and FDA amended their draft rule to "permit the use of the
entire small intestine for human food"
if the last 80 uncoiled inches going to the colon was removed.
Since then, though, studies have shown that infectious
mad cow prions can be found throughout all parts of the
intestine, from the stomach down to the cow's colon,
raising the question of whether all entrails should
again be removed.
The North American Meat Association says, NO, wanting
to keep all cattle insides inside the food supply,
similar to what we heard from the CTFA,
the Cosmetic, Toiletry, and Fragrance Association.
They protested that by banning from cosmetics
downer and dead cattle, as well as brain,
skull, eyes, and spinal cords, as well as intestines, and tonsils,
our nation's supply of cosmetics could be put in jeopardy.
There could be a tallow shortage for soap, for example.
The FDA may not realize that cosmetics and personal care products
are a quarter trillion dollar industry worldwide.
In the end, the FDA tentatively concluded that
intestines should continue to be allowed in the food and
cosmetic supply, because only trace amounts of infectivity
have been found throughout the bowels of cattle,
a conclusion they have to make since otherwise,
all meat would have to banned as well,
because new research shows that mad cow infectivity
is in the muscles too.
And, not just the atypical cases of BSE
like the last mad cow found in California,
but now we know the typical BSE as well,
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy - mad cow disease.
Low levels of infectious prions found in the ribs, shoulders,
tenderloins, sirloin tips, and round cuts of meat.
The latest estimates out of Britain suggest 15,000 people
are currently incubating the human form of mad cow disease,
contracted through the consumption of infected meat.
Fewer than 200 Brits have died so far of variant
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, but the incubation period for this
invariably fatal neurodegenerative disease,
can be decades,
the time between eating the meat and one's brain filling up with holes.
The fact that so many people are carrying it has important
implications for the safety of blood transfusions-
that's why many Americans who've lived in England
are barred by the Red Cross from donating blood,
as well as the safety of handling surgical instruments
that may have cut into someone who's a carrier,
since it's so hard to sterilize anything once contaminated.
Given these factors, it may be prudent to err on the side of
caution when regulating which intestines are allowed
on and in our mouths. But it's a balance.
As one meat company points out, guts are not just used
for lipstick, intestines is human food, "providing us with
a precious source of protein which is evidently essential
for our human population."