Horsemeat Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Tessa Munt
Main Page: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells)Department Debates - View all Tessa Munt's debates with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
(11 years, 3 months ago)
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Tessa Munt (Wells) (LD)
Phenylbutazone, known as bute, can be bought off the internet in tablet form, in injectable form, and as an apple and citrus-flavoured powder. Most horse owners believe that it is the only effective anti-inflammatory drug in controlling joint pain. It is so easy for owners to get hold of it that I wonder what the Minister might have in the way of proposals to ensure that there is some integrity to the system. Does he agree that testing is the only way of identifying the use of this drug?
Mr Heath
I do not want to move away from the position that it is crucial to understand: it is the responsibility of those who are selling products and those who are processing products to obey the law, which is very clear that a horse that has had phenylbutazone administered to it should not be entering the food chain. We have a regulatory issue as to whether the horse passport system across Europe is sufficient to meet that task, and that is what we are addressing. It would not be helpful to people who own horses across Europe to say that they cannot use a very useful anti-inflammatory drug; rather, we need to say, “If you do that, don’t put it on people’s plates.”