NY Daily News Jan 30, 2001

Mad Cow Candy Scare German import on N.Y.C. shelves may be tainted

By BILL EGBERT and CORKY SIEMASZKO

An imported candy pulled from shelves in Poland amid fears that a key ingredient came from cattle infected with deadly mad cow disease is on sale at many New York delis and bodegas.

The Daily News found Mamba in stores in all five boroughs. The sweet is a German-made fruit chew that comes 18 pieces to a package in orange, lemon, raspberry and strawberry flavors.

The candy's manufacturer insisted Mamba poses no health risks and that the company has no plans to change the ingredients of the candy sold in the U.S.

"The product is safe," said Tony Nelson, a vice president at Storck U.S.A. in Chicago.

But city health officials alerted by The News said they would investigate whether the candy poses a threat.

"Obviously, we will look into it," said Health Department spokeswoman Sandra Mullin. "People should not panic. We have not had animal or human cases of mad cow disease in New York or in the United States."

Mamba, which sells here for about 75 cents a pack, is one of the best-known candies in Europe. It is made by the Storck Co. of Werther, Germany, and marketed in 80 countries.

Mamba contains a beef-based gelatin. The company began recalling the candy in Poland on Jan. 22, after Polish health officials issued strict regulations banning beef products from countries that have had outbreaks of mad cow disease.

"The German health authority has certified that all the gelatin we use has been properly prepared for human consumption," Nelson said.

Storck will "reformulate Mamba to eliminate the use of beef gelatin" for the Polish market, but not elsewhere, he said.

The local Mamba distributor in Brooklyn said his supply comes directly from Germany.

"I have 200 cases left," said Noly Sosa, manager of Empire Candy and Cigarettes in Williamsburg. "That could supply about 600 stores. ... And that's in all five boroughs."

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not received a Mamba alert. "Just because it's a bovine source doesn't necessarily mean there's a problem," a spokeswoman said.

She added that the FDA would object to products containing gelatins made from cow brains or spinal columns, where the germs that cause the fatal disease originate.

People suffering from mad cow disease experience muscle twitching and trembling, followed by dementia and hallucinations. Most die of pneumonia within a year of the first symptoms.

Mamba lovers — many of whom learned of the candy controversy yesterday from the Brooklyn-based Polska Gazeta newspaper — expressed concern.

At the Greenpoint Deli Market on Manhattan Ave. in Brooklyn, customer Joanna Nowak said she grew up eating Mamba candy in Poland.

"I bought some yesterday," said Nowak, the mother of a 3-year-old daughter. "My daughter likes it very much. She eats it every day. But this morning I told her to throw it away."

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), January 30, 2001

off

-- Uncle Bob (unclb0b@aol.com), January 31, 2001.

Uncle Bob = moron

-- (it's already @ off. dimwit), January 31, 2001.

oh, okay...

-- Uncle Bob (unclb0b@aol.com), January 31, 2001.

You're funny Uncle Bob!

off again, LOL!

-- (dimwit@dumb.off), January 31, 2001.

Germany To Slaughter Cattle

BERLIN (AP) -- The German government announced Wednesday that it would slaughter an estimated 400,000 cattle in an attempt to curb mad cow disease, its most dramatic step to fight the outbreak since the first case was discovered here in November.

Agriculture Minister Renate Kuenast agreed to the action after a Cabinet meeting Wednesday. Kuenast estimated it would cost the country about $166 million to buy the cattle from farmers, properly slaughter them and dispose of the corpses.

First to be slaughtered would be cattle at least 30 months old. No starting date was given for the action, but ministry officials said they hoped it would be as soon as possible.

After the animals are killed, they will tested for mad cow, the common name for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE.

The slaughter is intended to help farmers recover from the dramatic decrease in consumption of beef, the ministry said.

German consumption of beef has dropped by more than 50 percent since November, the Central Bureau for Markets and Pricing reported Wednesday. Exports have also fallen drastically after 34 other countries banned German meat.

German ministers had claimed their country was free of the disease, until the first case was discovered last year. Since then, cases have been discovered every week to bring the overall number of infected cattle to more than 20.

In Italy, some 100 police in riot gear were deployed outside Parliament Wednesday as farmers protested for a second straight day to demand the government help offset their losses from the mad cow scare and come up with a plan to save the beef industry.

A day earlier farmers threw eggs and oranges at the doors of the building.

In Panama City, livestock inspectors from Mexico and Central America agreed Tuesday to ask their governments to suspend importation of 53 products from Europe, including canned meats and sausages, to keep the disease from entering their countries.

BSE has been linked with new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human version of the fatal brain-wasting ailment that has killed some 80 Europeans since the mid-1990s, mostly in Britain. Cattle parts ground back into feed are suspected of spreading the disease.

AP-NY-01-31-01 0803EST< 

-- (mad@cow.news), January 31, 2001.