* Meat products that might contain brain, spinal cord, or central nervous system tissue. These include cow brains, head cheese, neck bones, cheek meat, and ox-tail from cattle.

* Products that contain beef extracted by "advanced meat recovery" (AMR) machines that squeeze out the last bits of meat from cow carcasses. A 2002 government survey found that one in three samples of this reclaimed meat was contaminated with spinal cord and other central nervous system tissue. AMR beef may be used in some hot dogs, taco fillings, pizza toppings, sausages, and beef jerky made from ground or chopped meat. Manufacturers are not required to identify AMR beef on food labels.

Another mad cow rule from USDA today reads:

"From January through August 2002, FSIS conducted a survey of AMR products derived from the vertebral column of cattle to establish a baseline for the prevalence of spinal cord and DRG tissue in beef AMR products... In the 2002 Beef AMR Survey, the Agency found that while some establishments were able to consistently produce beef AMR product that was free of spinal cord and DRG tissue, a majority of the establishments had difficulty keeping spinal cord and DRG out of their AMR products. Overall, FSIS found that that approximately 76% (25 of 34) of the establishments whose AMR product was tested had positive laboratory results for spinal cord, DRG, or both in their final beef AMR products. The survey also found that approximately 35% (89 of 256) of all final AMR product samples that were tested had positive laboratory results for spinal cord, DRG, or both.

Note that DRG means dorsal root ganglia, the mass of nerve tissue exiting the spine as an extension of spinal cord tissue. Basically nerve tissue not fit for human consumption, especially considering the risk of BSE or mad cow disease.