If a country (or zone or compartment) is deemed to have negligible bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) risk and mitigating measures are not necessary because all necessary controls and activities have been in place for the required periods of time, there are no trade restrictions for ruminant meat and bone meal (MBM), tallow, tallow derivatives, gelatin, or collagen from bones.
If a country (or zone or compartment) is deemed to have negligible BSE risk, but mitigating measures are required because:
• less than seven years have passed since last indigenous case of BSE;
• education and compulsory notification has not been in place for seven years;
• the appropriate level of surveillance and testing has not been done for seven years; or
• the ruminant-to-ruminant MBM ban has been enforced for less than eight years.
Then the following actions would be taken on that country’s rendered products:
• Ruminant MBM should not be traded between countries.
• For gelatin and collagen from bones or hides and skin from the head and intended for food, feed, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, or medical devices:
- No skulls and vertebrae used in processing (excluding tail vertebrae, and hides and skins from the head);
- Bones required to be subjected to pressure washing (degreasing), acid demineralisation, prolonged alkaline treatment, filtration, sterilization at 138 degrees Celsius for a minimum of four seconds, or to an equivalent process in terms of infectivity reduction.
• Protein free tallow (less than 0.15 percent insoluble impurities) would trade freely, but tallow with more than 0.15 percent insoluble impurities and dicalcium phosphate would be required to:
- originate from cattle inspected ante and post mortem;
- not be processed from material including tonsils and distal ileum;
- not be processed from material including brain, eyes, skull, spinal cord, and vertebral column of cattle older than 30 months.
• Tallow derivatives from tallow with more than 0.15 percent insoluble impurities intended for food, feed, fertilizers, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals including biolog-icals, or medical devices would be required to be produced by hydrolysis, saponification, or transesterification using high temperature and pressure.
December 2004 Render