Local diners unfazed by U.S. mad cow frenzy

Sari P. Setiogi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Despite all the fuss about the outbreak of mad cow disease in the United States, restaurants and fast food chain operators here claim their business are still operating normally.

They said the impact of the reports on the disease, if any, was minimal, as many of them used locally produced beef while others had quickly switched to beef imported from other countries.

"Starting today, we have switched temporarily to beef imported from Australia," Ellya, marketing manager of PT Mas Millennium Indonesia, the operator of Tony Roma's restaurant, told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

The restaurant specializes in U.S. steaks.

"The temporary change is understood, both by our customers and our headquarters in the U.S., in view of concerns over the outbreak of the disease," said Ellya.

Mad cow disease has not discouraged Tony's customers from visiting the restaurant, but they now prefer to order non-steak dishes, according to Ellya.

Sizzler, another restaurant that specializes in U.S. beef dishes, declined to comment. A senior restaurant staffer merely said on Tuesday: "Sorry, I'm busy".

A Pizza Hut operations staffer, who requested anonymity, told the Post that Pizza Hut restaurants in Indonesia use local beef.

The staffer admitted that the restaurant imported some food products, such as cheese, but not meats.

Separately, an employee of PT Wendy's Cita Rasa, the operator of U.S.-based fast-food chain Wendy's, told the Post the restaurant used beef imported from Australia.

"We only rely on U.S.-imported products such as french fries, waffle fries and fried chicken seasoning. For chicken, we use local products," said the employee, who also asked for anonymity.

According to the employee, Wendy's, which has 26 outlets across the country, buys 70 percent of its food products locally and imports the remaining 30 percent.

The U.S. government officially confirmed its first case of mad cow disease on Dec. 23, based on samples taken on Dec. 9

Government data indicates that approximately 6,500 tons of beef are imported from the U.S. every year, or about 4 percent of all beef imported into the country.

Australia is the largest meat exporter to Indonesia, followed by New Zealand.

The national consumption of meat is between 1.5 million tons and 1.6 million tons annually, some 90 percent of which is supplied locally.

Meanwhile, Denny Widaya Lukman, a veterinarian and food health expert from the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB), said on Tuesday that milk, dairy products and cow hide or rind could not be infected with mad cow disease, which is also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

"The cow parts that are highly susceptible of being infected by BSE are the brain and spinal cord. Meat is risky too, because as it contains nerves connected to both the brain and spinal cord," he said.

Mad cow disease can be transmitted through their feed and also through intrauterine transmission.

Director of public veterinary health Bachtiar Moerad at the Ministry of Agriculture said BSE was infectious, but not contagious.

He explained that in medical terms, "infectious" and "contagious" both denoted a disease that can pass from a person or an animal to another. A contagious disease, however, can spread from casual contact, while an infectious disease cannot.

"BSE does not spread rapidly like foot and mouth disease," he said.