Specified risk material


Specified risk material is the general term designated for tissues of ruminant animals that cannot be inspected and passed for human food because scientists have determined that BSE-causing prions concentrate there. The term was referred to in the United Kingdom's Specified Risk Material Order 1997, in the United States Department of Agriculture's, and in the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's regulatory response to the first confirmed U.S. BSE case in December 2003.
These can include brains, eyes, spinal cord, and other organs; the exact definition varies by jurisdiction. Under the new US regulations, SRMs are: the brain, skull, eyes, trigeminal ganglia, spinal cord, vertebral column, dorsal root ganglia of cattle 30 months of age and older, and the tonsils and distal ileum of the small intestine of all cattle.

BSE

The BSE infective agent has been found to concentrate in specific tissues of BSE-infected cattle.

BSE SRMs

In both the United States and Canada, considered as controlled risk countries, SRMs are defined as: skull, brain, trigeminal ganglia, eyes, spinal cord, distal ileum, and the dorsal root ganglia of cattle aged 30 months or older. On January 12, 2004, the Food Safety and Inspection Service of the USDA published new rules banning such materials from the human food supply.
In countries classified as undetermined risk, the OIE code recommends SRM removal as follows: tonsils and intestines in cattle at all ages; brains, eyes, spinal cord, skull and vertebral column from animals over twelve months of age.
In the European Union, SRMs are excluded by law from the human and animal food chain.

Removal of BSE SRMs

The World Organization for Animal Health has established recommendations and guidelines for SRM removal based on the level of risk. In the U.S., tonsils are removed from cattle of all ages. SRMs must be removed at slaughter and disposed as inedible material. The dorsal root ganglia must be removed during the deboning process and in animals older than 30 months, the vertebral column is removed to be certain the dorsal root ganglia is extracted in its entirety.