Food Safety and Inspection Service September 7, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is amending its interim final rule, ``Prohibition of the Use of Specified Risk Materials for Human Food and Requirements for the Disposition of Non- Ambulatory Cattle,'' published in the Federal Register on January 12, 2004. The amendments permit beef small intestine, excluding the distal ileum, to be used for human food, provided that such product is derived from cattle that were slaughtered in an official establishment in the United States or in a certified foreign establishment from a foreign country that is eligible to export beef products to the United States. Although the distal ileum is the only portion of the small intestine in which BSE infectivity has been confirmed, the January 2004 interim final rule requires that the entire small intestine of all cattle be removed and disposed of as inedible. FSIS is taking this action based on the Agency's evaluation of this issue and of the comments received on the interim final rule, as well as comments received on an advance notice of proposed rulemaking published in July 2004. FSIS has concluded that the distal ileum can be effectively removed from the rest of the small intestine. FSIS has determined that removal of the distal ileum in accordance with the amendments in this document will provide the same level of protection from human exposure to the BSE agent as does the exclusion of the entire small intestine from the human food supply.