Volume 13: Industry Processes and Controls
4. Mechanically recovered meat (MRM)
The market for MRM

4.37 The Inquiry heard that mechanical recovery of meat was regarded in positive terms during the 1980s:

I think it is important to point out that during the 1980s . . . the MRM process was heralded as a very, very good process. It was producing sound protein material that could be used in foods. So the actual research that went behind the process of mechanically recovering meat was heralded as one of the great food technology drives of the 1980s. ¹

4.38 However, MRM was a product declining in popularity before the emergence of BSE. The introduction of the 1989 SBO Regulations and concerns over bovine spinal cord made bovine MRM even less attractive.

4.39 Mr Wildman of Sainsbury's supermarkets said that his company took steps to eliminate bovine MRM from its products in June 1988. He said that concerns about the microbiological standards of MRM already existed and that the emergence of BSE 'served as an additional reason to eliminate MRM'. ²

4.40 Mr Stephen Ridge, Quality Assurance Executive at Somerfield, told the Inquiry that his company also eliminated bovine MRM from its own brand products from 1990 onwards:

There was certainly some concern about the microbiological standard of some of the MRM. But this is also concern that the pressing process was actually going to potentially extrude a certain amount of lymphatic and nervous tissues. So I think it was taken on a basis of: put them both together and we just will not use that material; and we have not used mechanically recovered beef ever since. ³

4.41 On 25 June 1990, the Consumers' Association called for a prohibition onthe use of bovine spinal column in MRM. ⁴ In the same month, the MAFF Parliamentary Secretary, Mr David Maclean, described it as 'a product which is universally disliked'. ⁵ A paper produced by MAFF for a SEAC meeting in November 1990 noted that there was 'very little demand' for MRM. ⁶

4.42 In June 1992, Safeway supermarkets stopped using MRM in both human and pet food in response to perceived consumer concerns about its quality. ⁷

Although Safeway does sell a few branded products that contain mechanically recovered meat, the company does not permit its use in its own-branded products. ⁸

4.43 Before the introduction of the Specified Bovine Offal (Amendment) Order 1995, MAFF representatives met with industry members and were told that adverse publicity about the safety of MRM had led to a 'drastic reduction in sales'. ⁹

4.44 Although the production of bovine MRM has now largely ended in the UK, the Inquiry heard that the production of other MRM has not ceased:

MRM is still a product which is recovered, particularly from poultry meat, and is generally sent to the Far East and places such as that. ¹⁰