Originally from: lina
                        
Catering waste law is a disease timebomb

The pig industry campaigned in vain to persuade Defra
to tighten up its proposals for composting of catering
waste.

NPA Producer Group member Robert Persey remains
concerned that the system agreed by parliament this
summer is deeply flawed and will, sooner or later, be
responsible for an outbreak of foot and mouth, or
classical swine fever.

He points out that Defra's own risk assessment shows a
danger of several cases of classical swine fever a
year if the rules are not followed to the letter.

The pig industry sought to persuade Defra that all
composting of catering waste should take place in a
closed reactor.

But Defra went ahead with plans to allow a cheaper
system, whereby particle sizes of up to 40cm (about 15
inches) can be composted in 'housed' windrows for a
minimum eight days, followed by further composting
outdoors.

NPA's argument was, and remains, that this second
phase of the treatment could lead to the spreading of
pathogens by vectors such as birds and wild mammals.