Two supermarket chains have ruled out selling meat from animals fed on animal byproducts despite proposals put before the EU to relax the current ban on the practice.

Asda and Sainsbury’s distanced themselves from an EU research programme by stating that they would not sell meat from animals that had been fed meat and bone meal.

The Times revealed yesterday that the EU is spending €1.7 million (£1.15 million) on research that would allow the remains of pigs and chickens to be used in fodder.

Members of the EU’s advisory Economic and Social Committee want to speed up a change to the policy, which came in seven years ago as an antiBSE measure. Scientists are now carrying out tests to determine whether using pig and chicken carcasses as fodder could be resumed without posing any human health risks.

An Asda spokeswoman said that the chain would not consider stocking meat from animals fed on food containing animal byproducts: “I don’t think consumers are ready for it at all after everything that happened with BSE,” she said.

A Sainsbury’s spokeswoman said: “When sourcing food it is essential that we listen to what our customers want and ensure that we can guarantee that the food we sell is fresh, tasty, healthy and safe. Sainsbury’s will not be stocking food produced from animals that have been fed meat and bone meal.”

The spokeswoman for the National Farmers’ Union said: “Livestock and poultry farmers have to be acutely aware of consumer sensitivities on this issue, and no change to the current rules should even be considered unless and until it can be demonstrated that it would represent no risk to either animal or human health.”

A proposal to relax the animal feed ban was set out in the EU’s long-term anti-BSE strategy two years ago.

The committee – made up of representatives from employers’ and consumers’ groups and trade unions – has no legislative power, but routinely expresses opinions on proposed EU rules.

In December, the committee pushed for an end to the ban. Its minutes said: “The EESC suggests that the European Commission pursue and step up as swiftly as possible the studies under way, which clearly show that the use of meal meat from nonruminants can be used in pig and poultry feed without posing risks to human health.”

The EU has subsequently approved the research, which aims to find ways of monitoring the type of animal meal in different types of feed. It has been funded through the European Commission.

A spokeswoman told The Times that the research programme had been backed by British Government representatives.

“All proposals for research funding from the programme are approved by a committee composed of member states [including the UK] prior to adoption by the Commission,” she said. She could not, however, explain which UK representative approved of the scheme.

Insiders at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) have said that proposals to allow pig and chicken remains to be put into animal feed were supported by its officials last year.

Since 1986, 183,000 cases of BSE in cattle have been confirmed. Latest figures from Defra state that 160 people in Britain have died from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human form of BSE. Another five are thought to be infected.

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