September 23, 2005

South Korea bans certain New Zealand beef over excess insecticide

South Korea has banned beef from a New Zealand facility due to an excessive amount of insecticide found in the meat, the National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service officials said Sep 23.

Tests on a sample of the beef on Sep 22 showed 0.5 parts per million (ppm) of endosulfan.

This is not only higher than the international Codex Alimentarius Commission standard of 0.1 ppm adopted by Korea, but also fails the standards of countries like the US and Australia, which permit up to 0.2 ppm of endosulfan, officials said.

Used to control crop insects and mites, endosulfan is a chlorine-based insecticide which, when consumed in large quantities, can cause vomiting, diarrhoea and convulsions.

The ban went into effect immediately after the test, and applies to beef coming from an exporting facility identified as ME-47.

However, it does not cover beef from 32 other New Zealand facilities, though quarantine officials said that they plan to run immediate and detailed tests on these beef imports.

All ME-47 beef already on the Korean market will be recalled.

New Zealand is Korea's no. 2 beef importer after Australia, accounting for 30 percent, or 44,317 tonnes, of the total 147,636 tonnes of beef imported so far this year.