The British food safety watchdog is halting production of desinewed meat from cattle, sheep and goats following a ruling from the European Union. ‘DSM,’ which is used to bulk up reconstituted meat products, including fast food and supermarket value ranges, will be banned from the end of the month, according to the Food Standards Agency.

Desinewing, a process whereby remains of meat are removed from bones using water pressure is the subject of a disagreement between meat processors in the UK and the European Commission and is being outlawed for certain species by the European Commission, due to its similarity to mechanically separating meat. Both processes are being outlawed for use on goats, sheep and cattle over links to diseases including BSE.

However, the European Commission has acknowledged it does not consider the process to be a public health concern. Nevertheless, the FSA said that it risked incurring a ban on UK meat exports if it did not comply with the new ruling.

According to the EU, DSM and mechanically separated meat (MSM) are one and the same. DSM may still be produced from poultry and pig bones but from the end of April it must be classed and specifically labelled as 'Mechanically Separated Meat' (MSM), and can no longer count towards the meat content of a product.

This means that, starting from June, any products containing DSM from ruminants will have to be reformulated. Tim Smith, chief executive of the FSA, said DSM is a relatively small part of the UK meat industry, and assured that this is not a food safety issue.

He said that the ban is the result of a compliance issue, and that the EU had judged that referring to the product recovered by ‘desinewing’ as meat, which the industry had been doing, goes against European Union single market legislation.

Nevertheless, the meat industry has accused the FSA of “bowing down” to the commission and claimed that the new legislation could lead to price rises and job losses.

Stephen Rossides, director of the British Meat Processors Association, said: ‘This is a criminal waste of a valuable food product at a time when we are being urged to reduce food wastage. Common sense has gone out of the window.

Although meat industry representatives have condemned the decision as wasteful at a time when the value of thriftiness is being stressed in all sectors, environmental groups have questioned the environmental and health value of reconstituted meat, instead, they encourage people to eat less meat, but better quality to maximise the health benefits and minimise the cost to the environment.  

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