Volume 10: Economic Impact and International Trade
7. Exports of MBM and compound feed, gelatine, tallow and medicines
Exports of gelatine

7.24 In February 1992 the EU's Scientific Veterinary Committee Sub-Group on BSE assessed gelatine and concluded that the risk from trading it for 'consumption or for use in cosmetics' was negligible, regardless of the tissue source. ¹ This conclusion was accepted by the EU. However, when Commission Decision 94/381/EC was adopted on 27 June 1994, prohibiting the feeding of protein derived from mammalian tissues to ruminant species, one of its effects was to ban the inclusion of gelatine in ruminant rations, since gelatine would contain protein. ²

7.25 The Scientific Veterinary Committee reviewed the situation late in 1994 and concluded once again that the risk from trading gelatine was negligible. It therefore recommended that gelatine be excluded from the prohibition on feeding mammalian protein to ruminants. ³ This advice was accepted by the EU, and Commission Decision 95/60 excepted gelatine from the general prohibition. ⁴

7.26 Figure 7.2 below shows that, in the period from 1986 to 1996, exports of gelatine from the UK rose considerably. ⁵ It thus appears that any impact BSE may have had on such exports was minimal.

Figure 7.2: UK gelatine exports, 1986-96