LONDON – The European Commission (EC) has asked the United Kingdom to put a moratorium on a process that removes meat from animal bones, according to the UK’s Food Standards Agency. Desinewed meat is produced by using a low-pressure technique to remove meat from animal bones. The finished product closely resembles minced meat, the FSA said.

The EC asked that a moratorium be placed on desinewed meat from cows and sheep after the commission decided that DSM does not comply with European Union single-market legislation.

UK producers have used the DSM process since the mid-1990s, according to the FSA. The agency stressed that the product is safe and that the EC did not consider the issue to be a public-health concern. The process may still be used on poultry and pigs, but it must be labeled as ‘Mechanically Separated Meat’ (MSM), and not as ‘meat preparation’.