A government appointed agency must be created to provide clear information to the public regarding food scares, the British Consumers' Association said yesterday in response to reports of a possible link between BSE and sheep.
The call came as EU ministers moved to strengthen safety measures relating to sheep production while the British government stressed there was no scientific proof to support a link between BSE and sheep, despite calls by a leading scientist to test the animals "as a matter of urgency".
The Consumers' Association criticised the government's handling of reports of a possible BSE scare in sheep pointing to "conflicting" statements issued by individual members of the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee (SEAC) and "generalised" comments by the National Farmers' Union (NFU) that were unhelpful to consumers.
When the agency first discovered the risk of a link between BSE and sheep earlier this year it wrote to the Health Minister, Ms Tessa Jowell, urging the Department of Health to provide practical advice to the parents of young children who had not yet eaten sheep meat.
However, the CA said: "If the government had issued a clear statement when we asked them to it would have been much better than individuals making conflicting statements. I think consumers will now be thoroughly confused." The Department of Health countered that there was no evidence of a link between BSE and sheep saying it had concluded no further action was needed to protect public or animal health.
As the CA urged the government not to renege on its promise to restore public confidence following the BSE in beef scare and establish a Food Standards Agency, the EU Agriculture Minister, Mr Franz Fischler, is to resubmit proposals to ban high risk parts of sheep, such as the brain and spinal cord, from meat production in animals over one year old.
In Britain most consumption of sheep meet comes from animals of under a year old.
The heads and spleens of all sheep and goats and the spinal cord of all animals over a year old is also removed before consumption but the ban was not adopted throughout the EU.
The chief executive of the National Sheep Association, Mr John Thornley, said he believed consumers still had confidence in sheep meat despite comments made by Professor Jeffrey Almond, a member of SEAC, that there was a "distinct possibility" that BSE existed in sheep. If the link were proven, he said this week, there would be a "national emergency".