WESTERN BUREAU – The Ministry of Agriculture on Wednesday lifted the ban on the importation of the beef suet from the United States, saying that the fatty tissue is very unlikely to be affected by the Mad Cow disease.

“We have decided to lift the ban on beef suet with immediate effect, because it is the area of the cow that has the least possibility of getting any kind of contamination,” Agriculture Minister Roger Clarke told the Observer.

Beef suet, Clarke explained, is basically fat, and is one of the main ingredients used in the making of patties and hamburgers.

According to figures supplied by the agriculture ministry, Jamaica last year spent more than $18.5 million to import just over 870,000 kilograms of beef suet.

Late last December, the government announced a ban on beef imports from the US after a single cow was tested positive in Washington State for Mad Cow disease. The human variant of that fatal brain-wasting Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is believed to be passed to people who eat meat containing tissue from the brain and spine of an infected cow.

Since the ban, the country has been importing beef, mainly from Australia, New Zealand and Chile.

On Wednesday, the agriculture minister said importers would still be able to access beef from those sources.

The ban on other cuts of beef would remain in effect until the veterinary services of the US Department of Agriculture gives its nod of approval, he said.

“We are still working with the veterinary services of the US Department of Agriculture; they don’t want to sign off totally (on other cuts of beef) as yet. As soon as they sign off the entire ban will be lifted,” Clarke said.

Vincent Chang, managing director of Tastee Ltd, the largest manufacturers of patties in the island, welcomed the lifting of the ban on suet. According to Chang, since the ban was placed on the commodity he has been having difficulty in sourcing supplies.

“It was difficult to source new supplies for suet and the prices were as much as 40 per cent higher (when available),” Chang said.

He added, however, that the lifting of the ban on suet will not result in the reduction of patty prices at his company, because the fat constitutes a small ingredient in the making of the product.

Tastee Ltd, with the help of state- of- the art computerised machines, produces roughly 7,000 patties per hour at its Kingston and Montego Bay factories. The company uses local beef in the making of the product.

Yesterday, Chang said since the ban on beef from the US, the price of locally produced beef has increased by as much as 47 per cent.

He said inspite of the steep increase in price, his company has not passed on the full increase to its customers.

“We have been absorbing most of the additional costs whilst still attempting to maintain the quality and keeping the prices affordable to the consumer. This is reflected in the prices of our products, which are still lower than that of our competitors,” Chang maintained.

Since the December ban, there has been a 10 per cent increase in the price of patties made by Tastee Ltd.