Japan Lifts Suspension On Beef Imports From U.S. Firm

Japan has lifted a suspension on beef imports from a U.S. meat processing company as measures have been confirmed to prevent the company not complying with a bilateral beef trade accord aimed at safeguarding against mad cow disease, the Japanese farm and health ministries said Friday.

In February 2011, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare suspended imports of beef from Greater Omaha Packing Co. in Nebraska as the Animal Quarantine Service could not verify if the large intestines among a meat shipment from the company came, as required, from cattle 20 months old or younger.

A report presented to the Japanese government by the U.S. Department of Agriculture on March 15 attributed the problem to workers at the processing plant failing to carry out necessary inspections when mixing up shipments bound for the U.S. market with shipments destined for export to Japan, the two ministries said.

The report noted that Greater Omaha Packing will take measures to prevent a similar problem, such as attaching an identification label to each box bound for Japan.

The large intestines weighed 760 kilograms and were among 2.1 tons of frozen beef shipped from the Nebraska company.

SOURCE: U.S. meat processing company