Schumer: Track U.S. meat to guard against mad cow disease
Staff reports
Democrat & Chronicle
(June 20, 2006) ó U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., is pushing a bill to protect consumers from meat that could be tainted with mad cow disease.
The bill, expected to be introduced within two weeks, would require the U.S. Department of Agriculture to track all meat produced in the United States from the farm to the stores.
Any meat found to be contaminated could then be pulled from stores.
"It's been 20 years since mad cow disease was first reported in Europe and about three years since it was discovered in the United States," he said, "and yet there still is no comprehensive way to track tainted meat and to pull it off the shelves."
Schumer discussed the bill Monday at Genesee Valley Park in Rochester.
The Federal Meat Inspection Act and the Poultry Products Inspection Act would enhance the ability of the USDA to retrieve the history, use and location of meat and poultry products through record keeping and audits or registered identification.
A companion bill will be introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives soon.
The Washington-based American Meat Institute said efforts are under way to implement a national identification system, and Schumer's bill "will do nothing to enhance the efforts already in progress."
