February 9, 2011

Japan halts entry of Nebraska beef amid safety concern

Japan has cancelled beef imports from a US meat processing firm due to the inability to verify that parts of it meet standards set in a 2005 trade agreement, said the Japanese farm and health ministries on Tuesday (Feb 8).

Frozen beef shipped from Greater Omaha Packing Co. in Nebraska to a Tokyo port is subject to the halt, the ministries said, as the Animal Quarantine Service could not verify in an inspection Friday (Feb 4) if the large intestines of the meat were 20 months or younger as required.

The large intestines weighed 760 kilogrammes and were contained in 56 boxes, among 2.1 tonnes of beef contained in 129 boxes, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

The Japan-US trade deal also requires the removal of body parts called ''specified risk materials,'' including spinal columns, at which substances that tend to induce bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly known as mad-cow disease, are more prone to accumulate.

Although large intestines are not specified risk materials, the government suspended imports from the Nebraska firm and urged the US government to investigate the matter, they said.

Imports from the Nebraska firm account for roughly 1% of Japan's annual beef imports from the US, the ministries said.