EU set to lift four-year mad cow disease ban on T-bone

European Union veterinary experts today recommended the lifting of a four-year ban on steaks on the bone, including Italy’s famous Fiorentina steaks, ending a moratorium imposed during the mad cow crisis in 2000.

The European Commission said the return of the T-bone steak to butchers and kitchens could happen within the next two months after experts accepted advice from the EU’s European Food Safety Authority to raise the age limit of sales of beef with backbone to 24 months.