bse scare takes offal off menu

PAUL Heathcote was on the verge of writing out his list of speciality dishes for next year's Michelin guide when he turned on the radio to listen to the news.

He immediately took his pen and struck off black pudding of veal sweetbreads, potatoes and thyme-scented juices.

What he heard was a report about the Government's ban on the use in cooking of sweetbreads (the thymus gland) and intestines taken from British calves less than six months old.

An experiment had revealed traces of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in the small intestines of calves. The Government stressed the experiment had involved feeding calves with large doses of BSE, adding that there was no evidence that humans could contract Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease from an animal with BSE.

But Gillian Shephard, minister of agriculture, fisheries & food, said the ban had been extended from older cattle to calves because of the Government's policy of "extreme caution" over BSE.

This view was bolstered by the Meat & Livestock Commission, which described the ban as simply "a belt and braces job".

For the time being caterers are being asked to voluntarily refrain from using calves' intestines and thymus glands, and an outright ban will be introduced in a few weeks' time after the necessary statutory instrument has been applied in Parliament.

Mr Heathcote, whose Lancashire restaurant won its second Michelin star in January, told Caterer he had left the black pudding off his speciality list because customers would be put off the dish, whether the sweetbreads were British or not. "We're going to have a big problem with offal, because people just aren't going to want to eat it," he said. "I'll have to alter the black pudding recipe, and I suspect the problem won't go away very quickly."

Patricia Shapland, co-owner and joint head chef at Whitechapel Manor in South Molton, Devon, said she too would think carefully about the sweetbreads on her menu. Although it would cause difficulties, she approved of the Government's action.

"Even if there's only a slight risk from calves then I'd say it's right to introduce the ban," she said.

John Sullivan, managing director of Gwent-based supplier Vin Sullivan, said the ban would push down his sales of offal even further.

"The market is very sensitive to this kind of scare, even though most of our veal comes from Holland," Mr Sullivan told Caterer. "We've found sales of offal are about 40% of what they were two years ago, and this will make restaurateurs even less inclined to put it on their menus."