Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)
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232. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the regulations dealing with fish, pig, cow and poultry food manufacture, with particular reference to whether cow brains and spinal cord are permitted. [23462/13]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Detailed EU Regulations relating to food safety, animal by-products (ABP) and TSE govern the production of food of animal origin and the use or disposal of ABP. Specified risk material (SRM), which is classified as a Category 1 or higher risk ABP, includes the tonsils, intestines and mesentery of all bovine animals, the skull including brain and eyes, the spinal cord of bovine animals over 12 months and the vertebral column including dorsal root ganglia of bovine animals over 30 months.

The Regulations provide that SRM should be removed in slaughterhouses, cutting plants or high risk processing plants approved by the competent authority and completely destroyed by means such as rendering in a Category 1 rendering plant to avoid any risk to human or animal health. The SRM or the digestate produced from rendering this material should not be placed on the market to be used in the production of food or feed.

The Regulations prohibit the manufacture of feed for fish, pigs, cows or poultry using material processed from animals of the same species, nor is it permissible to feed protein derived from mammals to ruminants. The inclusion of SRM in animal feedstuff is also prohibited.