October 7, 2008

South Korea continues suspension of beef exports from New Zealand

New Zealand's Food Safety Authority (FSA) says a suspension on beef exports to South Korea from New Zealand is still in place for a Waikato-based meat processor.

The FSA says it is still waiting on a response from South Korea on New Zealand's investigations into the contamination.

Senior market manager Neil McLeod says that although the investigations have not found any traces of endosulfan in the meat, it may not mean that there were no traces in the sample tested by the Koreans.

He says a decision by Korea over whether the export suspension will be lifted has been delayed, but the FSA has had informal indications that it will be made soon.

Last week South Korea also blocked exports of dairy products from the Tatua company, after finding traces of the chemical melamine in one product, Lactoferrin.

The FSA is also testing a wide range of New Zealand dairy goods but only minute traces of the chemical have been found so far, in one type of product.