John Williams: "You can't blame us for being dubious"

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, John Williams, whose daughter Alison died of new variant CJD, said the measure would restore public confidence in British beef.

He was responding to European farm ministers' lifting of the two-and-half-year ban on beef exports from the UK on Monday.

'Like ostriches'

Mr Williams said: "I would put a plea in to the farming community and also the meat producers to press for a test which will confirm that beef is safe to eat.

"Don't forget I lost a daughter who was a brilliant girl, and I'm still dubious. But I'm not saying it isn't safe.

"Once those tests have been produced and you can take a piece of meat that's on the slab and say 'this beef is BSE free', I'll eat it."

He sympathised with farmers and said the majority of the blame for the BSE crisis lay with the last government.

"I think the last government have got a lot to answer for," he said.

"I feel very strongly about this ... because they were like ostriches. They buried their heads in the sand and hoped it would go away and it didn't go away.

"And the poor farmers got caught out eventually and lost thousands of pounds."

The call for a test was also made by former Junior Health Minister Edwina Currie at the BSE inquiry in London on Monday.

"If you are going to make progress you need to be able to test whether the disease is present, and preferably before it has killed its host," she said.