"Mad-cow disease," says the COA's Lee, "has an extremely long latency period. People infected with it don't know they've eaten a piece of contaminated meat until the disease hits them ten years later." Detailed production records can help investigators to track down the culprit. The EU came up with the idea of a transparent farm-to-fork process years ago.
「狂牛症潛伏期極長，導致很多人發病後才知道，原來 10 年前吃的東西，10 年後還會跟我算帳，」農委會主委李金龍說，生產履歷制度可以找出禍首，歐盟很早就有「從產地到餐桌」過程透明化的想法。