The European Commission has agreed to allow T-bone steaks back into Europe's restaurants, lifting a four-year ban imposed over mad cow disease fears.
Sales of beef containing the backbone of animals aged over 12 months were banned in 2001 in many European countries to reduce the risk of catching the human equivalent of BSE, mad cow disease. This low age limit effectively outlawed T-bone steaks.
EU veterinary experts meeting in Brussels have now raised that limit to 24 months, meaning that T-bones are likely be back on sale in butchers' shops across Europe by the end of the year.
"This first step towards easing EU BSE measures is a positive reflection of how far we have come in the battle against the disease. It is not a move that was taken lightly," EU Food Safety Commissioner Markos Kyprianou said.
"We are confident that the high level of consumer protection established through our BSE rules over the past decade will not be affected by this proposal," he said.
The Commission's proposal to raise the age limit will now be examined by the European Parliament. If the assembly confirms the proposal within some two months, T-bone steaks could reappear in EU restaurants by the end of the year.
"In practice, there's not much to change in most countries. It's just a different set of animals from which you remove the spinal column," said an official from one national livestock authority. "They should be 'ready to roll' straightaway."
The T-bone ban exempted countries such as Sweden, Finland and Austria where there were no cases of BSE, the brain-wasting disease that is believed to cause a similar deadly condition in humans.
The cow's vertebral column was thought to be particularly dangerous because concentrations of BSE-causing prions have normally been found in nervous tissue rather than muscle.
The European Union is also planning to allow the resumption of British beef exports, banned in 1996 after mad cow disease broke out.