In Editorial 21 we announced the change in EU rules on food labeling. The wave of change extends now to the rules on use of meat meal in fish, poultry and pigs feed.

The current strict rules was originated 15 years ago as that caused alarm, with the announcement that there was a link between bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). More than 2,000 deaths were attributed to this disease whose presumed causal agent, the prion, was introduced into the food chain by the use of meat from sick animals, in cattle feeding and to humans by consumption of bovine meat and nerve tissues.

However it is necessary remember some facts that can help to discover some hidden truth between appearances:

1. The spongiform encephalopathies are degenerative diseases of the nervous system that exist in all animal species including humans and are known at least since 1933 (maedi visna).

2. However the information of the period just indicated the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy as a source of human infection.

3. In those days were diffused, in most state television world, episodes of some science fiction or travel series, presenting strange nerve disease,  workers in poultry and other animals slaughterhouses, due to pollution as well as nervous diseases in travelers tasted certain dishes cooked with brain and other organs of animals. None of these episodes is supported by any scientific authority but the spread was performed iteratively and universal.

4. The main sanitary operation, related to the mass slaughter of cattle was conducted in the UK, which is why this country received generous EU grants in a moment in time coincident with the implementation called British check and the common agricultural policy (CAP).

5. Meat meals have continued using in most EU countries without a health warning in these countries.

6. The removal of the ban is also coincides with the study of the elimination of the British check and the CAP reform.

If the operation is successful, these products, which is renamed as Transformed Animal Proteins (TAP) would have to be produced from animal remains whose death occurred under controlled conditions. Animals from which the cause of death is unknown or have died by disease could not be used. The TAP therefore would come considered healthy animals and They could not be used in the feeding of animals of the same species.

If the operation prospers we must ask some questions:

1. Was it really dangerous to use meat meal in animal feed?
2. Two. Was there a cross infection between species and that the current reform would recommend using in a different species?
3. Three. Was there really a connection between BSE and human CJD if the current reform considered safe to use in a different species?

If the answer is finally “NO” is adequate, in the three questions, and European rules changes we should ask ourselves the same questions that we formulated in the editorial XXI and reproduce:

“In situations such as this, one always asks if the laws, exaggerated, become counterproductive to the general population of the European Union in which 79 million people live below the poverty line, were implemented in good faith or having a knowledge of its ineffectiveness were implanted as an instrument of intervention to favor some lobbyists (thus hurting those who were not members of the same) or that some officials (almost never switch) will use this platform for enrichment (providing services).

If measures are implemented in good faith or as a reaction to a food security problem, even if they have been counterproductive, should deserve reprobation of the current parliament. However, if the measures were introduced under pressure from some lobby or looking interventionism and personal enrichment, the current parliament should prosecute the perpetrators and those who got rich putting it into practice. “

The European Union needs a serene reflection, in many organizational aspects, and that as a result of the current budget deficit is demonstrating that many corrective measures expose the lack of need for the above measures and question the veracity of the arguments used in its moment. It’s time to ask for reliability, professionalism and responsibility to the disaster suffered by European citizens and the growing feeling of having been deceived and cheated for the benefit of a few.