April 10, 2013

expert reaction to news of bute found in corned beef products

Asda announced that it was recalling its budget corned beef after low levels of phenylbutazone – the veterinary pain killer known as bute – were detected. 

Everything the SMC has previously done on the horsemeat story, including a factsheet on bute and horsemeat, can be found here.

Prof Tim Morris, School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, University of Nottingham & Vice Chair of the British Horse Industry Confederation, said:

“Following the finding of the veterinary drug bute (phenylbutazone) in corned beef products from Asda, I think consumers should recognise this is perhaps inevitable given the wide scale of abuse of meat regulations in processed food.

“There is no room for complacency, but from the information given on the amount of bute in the product this is more of a fraud rather than a food safety issue, and it emphasises why the Government and retailers need to crack down on this problem.”

Dr Mark Bowen, Associate Professor in Veterinary Internal Medicine, School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, University of Nottingham, said:

“Phenylbutazone (bute) is a safe and effective painkiller used extensively in horses throughout the world. It is the only medicine of its type that can be used for long term management of pain and is therefore essential in order to protect the welfare of animals with diseases such as arthritis. While other painkillers are available that can be used safely in food producing animals, including horses, the long term safety of these have not been shown, and are therefore not direct replacements.

“Phenylbutazone cannot be used in any food producing animal. However suggesting any risk from the miniscule amounts of bute found in ASDA corned beef products is simply absurd; the amount of bute present is so low that you would need to eat hundreds of thousands of tins per day for several weeks to be exposed to any risk of side effects. Even then, the chances of any significant side effects are very low (less than 1 in 20,000).

“It is important to remember that this is the first discovery of bute in processed foods in the UK. All horse meat from the United Kingdom is now tested for the presence of bute prior to export to Europe. While it is clear that the corned beef was manufactured in France, the origin of the horse meat is currently unknown. There is no suggestion that this represents a breakdown of the controls that prevent this medicine entering the human food chain in the UK.

“The Horse Passport Act (2004) was devised to create a mechanism that enabled horses to be permanently excluded from the human food chain, in order to preserve the availability of bute, in order to maintain welfare standards in horses. This legislation was subsequently improved in 2009, by the requirement for horses to be permanently identified by a microchip inserted into the neck.

“Although the horse passport system has improved considerably since 2004, some weaknesses remain which provide opportunities to defraud the system and complicate the practicalities of compliance; The British Equine Veterinary Association are working with the rest of the equine sector to identify any remaining shortcomings of the current system of passports in order to help improve the current legislation.”