Pathogen
Reduction Treatments (PRTs) to clean
poultry carcasses at the end of the
slaughtering process have been
approved by FDA and are common
practice in the U.S. and other
countries outside the EU. In April
2008, the European Food Safety
Authority (EFSA) published the
Biological Hazards Panel’s
assessment in which it found that
the four antimicrobial treatment
substances used in the U.S.
(chlorine dioxide, acidified sodium
chlorite, trisodium phosphate and
peroxy acids) do not represent a
safety concern within the proposed
conditions of use. The Scientific
Committee on Health and
Environmental Risks (SCHER) and the
Scientific Committee on Emerging and
Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR),
two independent scientific
committees that provide the
Commission with scientific advice,
published their joint opinion on
“Environmental
impact and effect on antimicrobial
resistance of four substances used
for the removal of microbial surface
contamination of poultry carcasses”.
Again, the
SCHER and SCENIHR found no prejudice
against the use of PRT. For more
information see
GAIN report E48040 "EU Scientific
Opinions on Poultry PRTs show no
drawbacks".
In
a
joint statement released after
the second meeting of the U.S.-EU
Transatlantic Economic Council (TEC)
on May 13, 2008, the Commission
committed to "propose changes to EU
regulations that will allow the
importation of poultry meat
processed using PRTs, as well as the
use of such treatments in EU Member
States in the production of poultry
meat for consumption in the EU”. On
June 2, 2008, a
Commission proposal
amending the EU’s Food Hygiene
Regulation to allow the use of PRTs
was put to vote to the Standing
Committee on the Food Chain and
Animal Health. The Standing
Committee rejected the Commission’s
proposal almost unanimously (see
point 18A of the
summary record). The next step
in the decision-making procedure is
that the Commission forwards the
proposal to the Council. Although
the European Parliament has only a
limited role in this phase of the
legislative procedure, it adopted a
resolution calling on the
Commission to reject the
Commission’s proposal.
Although options for a viable
solution to the EU's ban on imports
of U.S. poultry were discussed at
the third TEC meeting in October
2008, the
EU Agricultural Council
unanimously (with the exception of
an abstention from the U.K.)
rejected the proposal to approve
PRTs on poultry on December 18,
2008. After seven and a half
year of the U.S. attempting to have
the EU allow PRTs on poultry, this
vote marks the very last step in the
EU's legislative procedure.
For more information see
GAIN report E48148.
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