MAD COW SCARE: Supermarket chain blames media coverage for distorting the facts as shoppers switch to lamb and pork
Beef sales drop by up to 10pc, say shopkeepers
By Barbie Dutter
SUPERMARKETS and butchers yesterday reported a significant drop in sales of beef, with customers switching to other meats following the latest health scare over mad cow disease.
The country-wide Dewhurst butchers chain saw beef sales drop 10 per cent last week and has cut back on orders with suppliers.
Major supermarket chains, including Sainsbury, Safeway, Tesco, Waitrose and Marks & Spencer, have also noticed a decline.
All have stressed that their beef is safe, and that the meat used is from young beef cattle, not the older dairy cows most at risk of carrying mad cow disease (BSE).
Cattle prices continued to plunge at markets throughout the country yesterday amid growing consumer concern that BSE may cause Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease in humans through eating beef .
At Chelmsford market in Essex, beef bullocks fetched between £50 and £60 less than a week ago.
Meanwhile, it was announced that the Government is to appoint more scientists to strengthen the independent Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee, which advises on consumer protection. The extra staff should be in place early next year to boost the BSE investigation.
Dewhurst's finance director Eugene Lines said many shoppers were buying lamb, pork and poultry instead of beef.
"We can understand why customers are concerned, but we can only be guided by what the Government health people say, which is that our product is healthy," he said.
"We buy only good quality meat and if we had any suspicion that there was any danger then we wouldn't sell it. We hope that the trade will be more pro-active in presenting the case that beef is a safe product."
Waitrose said sales of beef had "slowed a little", with the demand apparently moving to lamb and poultry.
Branch managers had received a number of queries from customers, prompting them to supply an information leaflet from the Meat and Livestock Commission in all their outlets.
Richard Sadler, head of buying for meat, poultry and fish, said: "We only use prime young cattle and don't use cow beef at all, but that is not an issue.
"I hope the common sense facts and the actual facts become transparent to consumers. There is no scientific evidence whatsoever to suggest that there is any likelihood that CJD can be contracted from eating beef.
"The authorities have made that statement very, very clear. Beef is safe, and it is irritating that the media coverage has distorted the facts."
Marks & Spencer, with food halls across the country, admitted beef sales had fallen, but said figures quantifying the drop were confidential.
"We can trace our beef back to where it comes from. We know the farms, and we know the farmers," said a spokesman.
"We choose and check the abattoirs and the people who butcher and package the meat. We only use meat from young steers aged up to two years."
Sainsbury reported a small drop in sales of beef products, but a spokesman said: "It's nothing significant. Sales are affected by various factors." This week, Sainsbury supermarkets were offering standard beef mince at £2.18 per 1kg - a saving of 81 pence on the normal price.
Tesco also reported a "slight decline" and said its buyers would cut orders to reflect the reduced demand.
A spokesman said: "We use only a very limited number of suppliers, our own food technologists inspect sources of supply and we ensure that no specified offal enters the food chain.
"We don't use any cow meat at all - all our beef comes from heifers and steers aged 18 to 30 months." A spokesman for Safeway said beef sales had dropped but added: "There has been no significant change in demand, and changes in the weather affects sales more than discussion in the media.
"The cold weather usually sends sales shooting up because people eat more joints, stews and casseroles."
Fast food restaurants said their sales were unaffected, with the most popular product at McDonald's still the Big Mac double burger.
