June 12, 2012

South Korea to check US beef export facilities

The government of South Korea will be releasing an inspection team on June 17 to have a comprehensive examination on the beef exporting facilities of the US.

Korea's Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MIFAFF) and the USDA have recently agreed on an earlier schedule for the annual inspection team to the US.

The schedule was moved up from its conventional date in view of the recent mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy, BSE) outbreak in California. In the past, the government inspection team had been dispatched every October.

"We will make final adjustments with the US and send the inspection team on June 17," said a high-ranking MIFAFF official Friday (June 8).

The inspection team will cover 24 areas including facilities that haven't been inspected for over three years, facilities that have only just started handling exports to Korea, and the three beef exporting facilities in California where the outbreak occurred. Since 42 facilities process US beef products that are exported to Korea, the inspection team will be examining roughly half of all relevant facilities.

Typically, the inspection team consisted of roughly eight personnel in two teams to cover 10 to 15 facilities. This time round, the numbers will be reinforced to include 12 to 15 personnel organised into three teams.

'Ever since the mad cow outbreak, we have reinforced inspection against US beef export facilities from previous 3% to 50%. Because of Korea's stricter quarantine standards against US beef, we were able to negotiate a more thorough inspection with the US this time round,' explained a MIFAFF official.