Letter: BSE crisis: blame the supermarket chains, not the farmers

Sir: A positive measure to restore public confidence in beef would be to accredit herds that have been free of BSE for a lengthy period such as 10 years. A Healthy Beef Mark would be available only to individually inspected animals from these herds and would allow the public to identify beef from these sources.

The Government should push for adoption of this measure throughout Europe. At least the extent of the problem in the UK is known and admitted. Our neighbours' stridency might become muted if they too had to test their animals in order to receive accreditation.

Philip Hambly

Guisborough, Cleveland