Mad cow disease - any risk of it in Indonesia?
By Tri Hafiningsih
JAKARTA (JP): For many Indonesians, eating slices of deep fried beef brain, beef liver sauteed in hot chili sauce, tongue steak, a bowl of oxtail soup or tripe curry are culinary treats.
Cuts of meat and entrails that end up as pet food or cattle feed in parts of western Europe and the United States are delicacies here.
And almost no part of the animal goes to waste.
From head to hoof, the entire carcass is used. Besides the meat, tongue, brain, heart, liver and innards, bones and bone marrow are used for broth for soup. The skin is fried up for crackers.
Housewife Dewi buys beef bones several times a week at the traditional market in Jatinegara, East Jakarta, to make soup for her family. She asks the butcher to chop the backbone into small pieces to be used for the broth.
It makes a quick, delicious and economical meal for her family of four, much cheaper than using meat.
"It's really nice to suck the marrow out of the backbone after you've finished your soup," she said.
In some other parts of the world, it would be unthinkable today to feast on beef marrow or innards. Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), generally known as mad cow disease, has forced many former beef lovers to think twice about eating the meat.
Since it was first reported in the mid-1980s in Britain, BSE has been detected in at least six countries in Europe. Hardest hit of all was Britain, which saw its once flourishing beef industry collapse under international bans.
BSE, which destroys the brains of cattle until they resemble sponges, is believed to also be a trigger for a new variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans, which mostly affects young people. At least 90 people, mostly in Britain, have come down with the brain-wasting disease since 1986.
"There may be no reported cases of BSE here, but we still have to be careful, or we could never prevent it becoming widespread if it reaches Indonesia," said Mangku Sitepoe, a veterinarian, general practitioner and former agriculture ministry official who has written a book on the disease.
The Directorate General of Animal Husbandry of the Ministry of Agriculture banned all imports of cattle meat and some products derived from it, including medicine and cosmetics, from countries in western Europe with recorded cases of BSE in 1996.
Only imports of "deboned meat", including beef liver, are allowed, from the United States, Australia and New Zealand.
But despite beef still being more expensive than chicken and goat meat, Mangku said increasing demand might lead to the import of meat from countries other than the United States and Australia.
He stressed precautions and law enforcement were required to ensure the meat was fit for human consumption, "but we just have to be alert and well-informed on the issue, there's no need to panic".
He expressed concern that the increasing demand for imported meat due to decreasing domestic production could lead to violations and sidestepping of regulations.
New markets are already being tapped for beef imports.
In December the agriculture ministry approved the import of frozen beef from Ireland to meet demand during the Idul Fitri, Christmas and New Year's holidays. The Office Internationale Epizooties International, which is the international body concerning livestock, has reportedly recorded BSE cases in Ireland.
Officials from the agriculture ministry argued that the office had since verified that meat from Ireland was safe for consumption.
Not an issue
Local restaurants specializing in steak and beef dishes say BSE is not an issue for them at present.
Winda Lesmana of the purchasing department of Gandy Steak House on Jl. Hayam Wuruk, Central Jakarta, said that the restaurant only served quality meat imports from United States and Australia.
For Gandy, it is a case of business as usual. "We don't have to worry so much. After all, we don't import any meat from Europe," Winda said.
But some well-off consumers are also looking at other items on the menu instead of their regular beef choices.
An employee of a large office goods supplier in the capital, Rina, said she was avoiding imported meat and only consuming local beef.
She added that she and her husband cut down on meals at restaurants in five-star hotels and steak eateries since learning of the mad cow scare last year.
"Maybe we just have to switch to seafood or chicken instead," she said.