April 30, 2007

 

Japan asks US to probe beef discovery in pork shipment

 

 

Japan's agricultural ministry said Friday (Apr 27) it has asked the US government to undertake an investigation after US beef, without a sanitary certificate attached, was found in pork imports from a US company amid the mad cow disease scare, Kyodo News reported.

 

The inclusion of such beef violates the law to prevent infectious diseases of cattle, said the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

 

According to the ministry, a total of 5 kilogrammes of frozen beef, carrying no sanitary certificate, was found in one of some 120 boxes of frozen pork that arrived at Narita airport, east of Tokyo, on April 19.

 

The pork, shipped by James Calvetti Meats in Chicago, is intended to be processed within the airport into in-flight meals to be served by a foreign airline.

 

No specific risk materials considered to cause mad cow disease, officially known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), were found in the beef, the ministry said.

 

As the beef in question was located in a bonded area within the airport, it is subjected to neither quarantine nor beef import restrictions agreed upon between Japan and the US, as a result of the December 2003 discovery of a BSE-infected cow at a US farm.

 

Nevertheless, the farm ministry asked the US government to toughen its control on meat processors and find causes of the problem.

 

Meanwhile, the ministry and the Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry jointly released a report from the US Department of Agriculture on another US meat exporter's lax shipment control that resulted in the arrival in Japan in February of sausages containing ingredients from banned US beef.

 

The Japanese and US governments will ban all shipments to Japan from Jobbers Meat Packing Company until they confirm that the company in Los Angeles realises an accurate shipment control system such as thorough matching of orders and products.