The year 1986 brought even more troubling developments. BSE – or Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy – was first diagnosed in cattle in the UK. Before the end of the 80s, there would be over 10 000 BSE cases in the UK, while Ireland would become the second Member State to
report the disease. In 1989, the EU placed restrictions on exports of live cattle and
beef from the UK to other Member States. As more became known about this new disease, and as it began to be reported in other Member States, the EU introduced a whole body of legislation to tackle BSE and protect consumers (see p.34). The 1980s was by no means all bad news,
however. EU consumers were enjoying greater choice and variety in food than ever before. A large contributor to this was the boom in bilateral and regional trade agreements from the mid-1980s, which facilitated more imports of foodstuffs which often could not be produced in any great quantity in the EU. The EU was also developing strong trading relations with developing countries, and is now the largest importer of food products from the developing world. In the previous decade, the landmark Lomé Convention had been signed with the African, Caribbean and
Pacific (ACP) countries. This gave these countries preferential access to the EU market for a whole range of products including many foodstuffs. Items such as tropical fruits, spices and new types of grains were pouring into Europe and becoming a more regular part of the EU citizen’s diet.