EU Consumer Affairs Commissioner Emma Bonino met on Thursday to

draw up a code of conduct to advise consumers about mad cow

disease.

"Science is leaving us with a lot of unanswered questions,"

Bonino said. "I am trying to get the experts to work out a code

for consumers to reduce risks."

The task force, created on Wednesday, consists of officials

from the European Commission's consumer, agriculture and

industry directorates.

Bonino urged EU member states to follow Britain's example

and set up telephone help lines to deal with consumer worries

about the health risk from beef products.

On Friday, the EU's Scientific Committee on Cosmetics will

meet to draw up a list of lipstick and other products affected

by a global ban on exports of British beef and beef products

imposed by the EU's executive on Wednesday.

The ban followed a British government disclosure last week

of a possible link between Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy

(BSE) and its lethal human equivalent Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

which provoked a consumer health scare.

REUTER