Where's the Beef From?

On the heels of Europe's recent foot-and-mouth outbreak and long-standing mad cow scare, the best place nowadays to dig into a sizzling steak could very well be on board your cruise ship. Concerns about tainted beef products from the United Kingdom, and more recently from France and Argentina, surely will stem any stampede of passengers asking "Where's the beef," like in that classic Wendy's hamburger commercial. But the more telling question might be "Where's the beef from?"

On that score, cruise ships appear to provide the safest havens. It turns out, many major cruise lines we surveyed routinely procured meat from the United States or Canada--well before the current scare skewered travelers on the horns of a beef dilemma. Cruise lines ship the beef cuts, usually frozen, by container vessels to ports of call worldwide to provision their fleets.

Beef from Canada

All 14 ships of Royal Caribbean International, for instance, which purchases beef from Canada, are provisioned from Miami, according to Nancy Wheatley, RCI's senior vice president/safety and environment. Celebrity, the upscale line owned by Royal Caribbean, is provisioned separately by Apollo, Celebrity's highly regarded ship supplier that orders, unpacks and ages the beef in Miami before sending it to vessels in Europe and elsewhere.

Princess Cruises purchases its beef from as far afield as Australia, shipping on average 25,000 pounds of meat products per week to each cruise ship. For years, most member lines of Carnival Corp. that sail in Europe--Holland America, Windstar, Cunard and Seabourn, for example--have provisioned from the U.S., according to spokesman Tim Gallagher.

However, Costa, a sixth Carnival line, imports only from Argentina, according to Hans Hesselberg, the line's vice president/hotel operations.

The recent appearance of foot-and-mouth disease in Argentina, though, has placed Costa as well as other lines on alert. Costa will closely monitor the situation, Hesselberg said, following news reports of confirmed cases of the illness and the immediate embargo of Argentinean beef by the U.S., Canada, Chile and the European Union.

"If there is a problem, of course, we would change our beef sources," he said. Currently, Costa is exploring alternative sources for its beef and noted that its present stores of beef pose no threat to public health, assured Hesselberg.

U.S. beef only

European-based KD River Cruises has taken immediate steps to remove Argentinean beef from its menu. After the flare-up in Argentina, the line's CEO, Torstein Hagen, quickly announced that "the compnay will now use only U.S. beef."

Until this point, the Swiss-owned line bought its beef from both the U.S. and Argentina, long ago bypassing Europe provisioners to avert Europe's bigger problem, mad cow disease, which first cropped up on England's Pitsham Farm in 1984.

Despite capturing recent headlines, foot-and-mouth disease is not fatal to animals and is rarely transmittable to humans. "In clinical terms, foot-and-mouth disease is about as serious to animals or to people as a bad cold," wrote veterinarian and researcher Abigail Wood in The Times of London. The illness, while not a significant threat to humans, does diminish the value of cloven-hoofed animals such as cattle, pigs and sheep, which then are destroyed.

Though an impediment to tourism, foot-and-mouth disease remains largely an agricultural problem because the virulent contagion can be transmitted to animals by airborne particles or even infected dust that clings to clothing.

The real culprit, however, is mad cow disease, a bovine malady resembling Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. The fatal affliction remains a somewhat mysterious illness that causes deterioration of the brain in both cows and humans. Despite recent concerns about foot-and-mouth disease, there is no relationship between the two. Chickens and pigs are unlikely to harbor mad cow disease. However, lambs, too, can develop a mad-cow-like disease called scrapie, which isn't known to harm people, according to Newsweek.

Currently, no outbreak of mad cow disease has been reported in the United States. And, as much for safety's sake as for flavor, luxury lines, in particular, corral some of the finest beef, American born and bred. Crystal's two ships, for example, primarily serve Black Angus, from the Corn Belt.

`No issue' for Radisson

On Radisson ships, beef "is not an issue whatsoever," a spokesman said. Radisson's beef "has always been and will always be exclusively prime USDA beef procured here in the States only. Our lamb comes from New Zealand....Our guests can rest assured that any beef or lamb products consumed aboard any of our vessels in Europe are as safe as any they'd eat in the U.S., perhaps safer..."

Obviously, no cruise line using U.S. beef plans to change its onboard menus, although menus on Costa now state the origin of beef products served. And Royal Caribbean says it's making sure waiters and dining staff not only are informed of what's on the menu but where the ingredients come from.

However, provisioning beef is of greater concern for the smaller European-based lines, such as Continental Waterways, which face stiffer challenges. "For the moment the problem is not in France; the fear is here but not the problem," said Colette Tassel, marketing manager for Continental Waterways.

North American passengers make up about 80 percent of Continental's baker's dozen of small riverboats and barges in France and Holland. And the line has enjoyed a decade-long association with a single "trustworthy" provisioner, Tassel said.

`Best butcher in France'

Jean Denaux in Sens was even cited in a recent article in L'Hotellerie, a French trade magazine, as "the best butcher in France," Tassel told us somewhat wistfully, from Paris early this month.

Nonetheless, menu changes are in the works on the line. Denaux typically procured beef for Continental Waterways from Ireland. But beef from the Emerald Isle is now banned. "Even if passengers want beef, if it comes from Ireland, we'll have to drop it," Tassel said. So on upcoming cruises scheduled before high season begins in earnest, Continental will drop beef from the menu as an experiment.

"We'll make a test to find out if passengers are worried, take off beef from the menu this week and replace it with chicken breast. Based on how they react we'll give back beef or not," Tassel explained.

And long before the mad cow scare, the consummately British Swan Hellenic Cruises hadn't provisioned beef from Britain, according to Carolanne Dieleman, sales and marketing director for the London-based line. It procures all major beef cuts for its sole vessel, the 320-passenger Minerva, from America.

Other European lines we surveyed were less specific. Fred Olsen Cruise Lines issued a statement from its Suffolk, England, office that said, in part: "In order to operate within the guidelines set down, all fresh meat for consumption on our vessels is being purchased from outside the UK, with its source being tracked to the satisfaction of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries."

And Peter Deilmann, a luxury line that recently began marketing cruises to North Americans, gave "assurances" through a spokeswoman without embellishing on details.

However, the situation can present other concerns for cruise passengers. Off the ship, for instance. Aware that American passengers have heightened concerns about contaminated beef, lines are tackling how best to advise passengers. Their precautions come in a variety of ways--from alerting passengers about where to eat independently on shore or ensuring that food consumed during ship-arranged shore excursions is safe, to exercising oversight for pre-and post-cruise hotel stays that lines arrange for passengers.

A balancing act

But "there's a delicate balance between warning guests of potential risks and being unfair to the host country by being unduly alarming," says RCI's Wheatley. In essence, RCI doesn't plan to alert passengers per se but will respond to their concerns on an individual basis.

Perhaps Costa, with its complete fleet of eight ships positioned this summer in Europe and the Med, goes to the greatest lengths for assurances in this regard. Costa doesn't completely rely on local operators; instead, they practically brown-bag it. According to Hesselberg, the line tries "as much as possible to bring food themselves, where that's legal," say, for lunches in Turkey and Greece, for example. And because local governments do, after all, police themselves, the lines even for your pre- and post-cruise hotel stays can't guarantee absolute certainty.

However, Celebrity Cruises' Manfred Ursprunger, senior vice president/total guest satisfaction, cited Celebrity's alliances with well-known hotel chains, recognized for high standards, such as Sheraton and Intercontinental: "Using those kinds of properties gives you a sense of security." Indeed, you can expect your cruise line to exercise extraordinary oversight. Still, the safest bet about beef in Europe nowadays is--don't eat it unless it swims.

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For updates on the Internet, check the following sites: For details on travel and access restrictions, the UK Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food at www.maff.gov.uk. British Information Services at www.britainusa.com. The U.S. State Department Bureau of Consular Affairs at travel.state.gov.