January 24/Daily Star -- Scotland's national dish has been branded "inedible" by the U.S. government.

U.S. food safety officials warn that the key haggis ingredient of sheep lung is unfit for consumption. The damning verdict  means haggis exports to the U.S. are likely to be off the menu for ever.

Ex-pat Scots in the States will have to choose between eating inferior homemade haggis or risk arrest by smuggling real ones across the border from Canada.

However, food safety boffin, Hugh Pennington, emeritus professor of bacteriology at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, said he was baffled by the Yanks' claim. He said, "Haggis is cooked extensively, so any bacteria should be killed."

From the February 7, 2011, Prepared Foods E-dition