LONDON A British veterinary expert expressed shock Saturday at the discovery on several occasions of imported German beef containing banned spinal cord tissue, and added it justified stepping up controls.

"It came as a shock to find that meat coming in to this country with certificates to say that it had met the current EU rules actually had spinal cord" in it, said Mac Johnston, a professor of veterinary public health at the University of London.

The presence of spinal cord tissue in beef destined for EU consumers is banned by the European Union, to safeguard against the danger of mad cow disease, or BSE.

The disease has been linked to a brain-wasting deadly illness found in humans, known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (VCJD).

Johnson, who is also a member of the EU Scientific and Veterinary Committee for Public Health, told the BBC: "We have sufficient evidence here to take extra action in the UK to safeguard our consumers," he said.

"The extra action is that we actually double check by actually inspecting the carcasses coming in, in addition to the certification," Johnson said.

All beef coming from Germany was currently being systematically rechecked anyway to make sure it met all health standards, he said.

British food safety inspectors said they had in the last two weeks found several shipments of beef from the German towns of Gustrow, Luebbecke, Oldenburg and Bakum that did not conform with EU regulations.

"All this is very worrying," said David Drew, labor member of Parliament for Stroud and a member of the Commons Agriculture Select Committee.

The news was "not just only putting people at risk but damaging the confidence of the consumer," he told BBC Radio Saturday.

Spinal cord is on the list of risky material which must be removed from cattle aged over 12 months and destroyed because of the risk from BSE.

Food Standards Agency (FSA) Chairman John Krebs said Monday such a breach of EU rules was "totally unacceptable."

He warned that "appropriate action" would be taken if German beef imports did not meet the required standards.

"It raises questions as to how effectively the EU-wide controls are being enforced," he said.

"At the request of the food standards agency, the European commission are already raising with the German authorities the need for them to fully comply with the controls," Krebs added.

A total of 1,337 tons of beef coming from Germany was imported to Britain between September 1999 and August 2000, the FSA said.

Europe's farm ministers are currently considering whether to further step up controls on mad cow disease.

Britain suffered the worst outbreak of the human form VCJD to date. So far it has claimed the lives of 80 people and many more are infected.

(IRNA)