September 12, 2006

South Korea sets out more detailed requirements for US beef
 

The South Korean government has released more detailed requirements for US beef exporters after it opened its doors to resume trade in US beef last week.

All beef products exported to South Korea by the US must be boneless beef derived from animals 30 months or under that have been slaughtered on or after Sept 11 2006.

Banned materials, besides specified risk materials, include cheek meat, diaphragm, trimmings, tongue, ground meat, advanced meat recovery products, all offal, variety meats and processed products. In addition, all beef must be derived from cattle that were raised in the US or legally imported from Mexico. Canadian beef would not be accepted. The cattle must have been in the US for at least 100 days before slaughter.

For the initial beef shipments, all cartons would be inspected for banned cuts, bone fragments and specified risk materials.

Any processing plant with bones chips in their shipments would be banned from exporting to South Korea but if any specified risk material is found, then ban on all US beef products would be enforced again. 

The US is hoping to establish a tolerance level for unintended bone fragments but South Korean authorities have yet to respond so far.

Both Hong Kong and Taiwan have banned beef imports from selected US beef plants, due to bone fragments in their shipments.