November 9, 2006

Swift & Co confirms error in beef shipment to Japan

Swift & Company on Wednesday (Nov 8) confirmed the presence of a single box of thymus gland in an October shipment of 760 boxes containing chilled beef and chilled tongue to Japan.

In a release, the company said the 11-tonne shipment originated from Swift's Greeley, Colorado, beef-processing facility and was received in the port of Osaka.

The box of thymus gland in question was not listed on the export certificate issued by the US Department of Agriculture, and thymus gland currently is not on Swift's eligible-product export list to Japan, the release said.

However, thymus gland is not a designated specified risk material and is eligible for import into Japan, the release said. The product in question was derived from cattle under 21 months of age and presents no risk to food safety, although Japanese officials overnight called on the USDA to launch an investigation and to spell out ways in which such an incident won't happen again.

Import procedures for shipments from the Greeley beef facility will be deferred temporarily, pending a final USDA investigation and subsequent implementation of corrective procedures, the Swift release said. Japan government officials intend to visit the Greeley facility to conduct a final confirmation of the corrective measure implementation. Import procedures for the Greeley facility are not expected to resume until completion of this visit.

Swift intends to cooperate fully with US and Japanese officials to expedite the resolution of this import deferral issue, the release said. Swift's three other beef facilities in the US remain eligible to export products to Japan.