Czechs ban EU chicken

The Czech Republic has banned imports of poultry from the EU following the the recent discovery that chicken sold in Britain contained beef protein.

The ban, sparked by a report that frozen chicken sold in Britain could contain beef protein powder, became effective today, said Josef Duben, a spokesman for the Czech veterinary authority.

Such treatment of the chicken meat could theoretically subject consumers to the risk of mad cow disease. The powder is added to make the chicken meat absorb more water so that it could be sold to consumers for greater profit.

The Czech Republic bans the sale of poultry products treated that way, Duben said. Britain and Ireland permits it as long as the products are properly labelled.

Duben said it was highly unlikely that consumers were at risk but added that “the problem was the products were not properly labelled.”

The British Food Standards Agency said Monday it would test chicken meat for beef protein powder after finding improperly labelled beef-powder infused poultry products in Ireland.

Mad cow disease – or bovine spongiform encephalopathy – first surfaced in Britain in the 1980s. It is linked to a human disease, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, which has killed about 100 people in Europe and is believed to spread through eating infected meat.

Two cases of mad cow disease have been detected in the Czech Republic.