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Japan to US...Tighten Up!

Mike

Well-known member
CattleNetwork_Today 3/26/2007 7:57:00 AM


Japan to U.S.: Tighten Beef Product Checks

A Japanese official has demanded that Washington step up its beef quality inspections before allowing designated U.S. meat-processing facilities to ship product to Tokyo.

Toshikatsu Matsuoka, Japan's minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, spoke to reporters after his country asked that USDA remove Tyson Foods Inc.'s Lexington, Neb., beef plant from a list of certified beef suppliers to Japan. (See Japan wants Tyson off beef supplier list on Meatingplace.com, March 23, 2007.)

Matsuoka said the U.S. has indicated a willingness to cooperate with his demand for more stringent inspections, according to Kyodo News Service. However, he's awaiting a response to Japan's request to take Tyson off the supplier list.

"We will decide how to deal with this matter after Washington comes back to us with a formal response," Matsuoka said.

By Tom Johnston on Monday, March 26, 2007
 

Kato

Well-known member
15:14:01 EST Mar 20, 2006
TOKYO (CP) - All eight Canadian beef processing plants that export to Japan have been given a clean bill of health by Japanese inspectors, a government statement said Monday.

"Each packer has set down in writing the procedures necessary under the export program, and these procedures are being followed," said the Japanese Health and Agriculture ministries in a statement.

Tokyo imposed a ban on U.S. and Canadian beef imports in 2003 after the first case of mad cow disease was detected in the two countries, but reopened its market in December to meat from cattle 20 months old or less.

However, Tokyo re-imposed its ban on U.S. beef imports in January after discovering prohibited bone parts in a shipment of American veal.

The deal prohibited the import of spines, brains, bone marrow and other cattle parts thought to be at particularly high risk of containing the disease.

Washington contends the mistaken shipment was an isolated error and did not indicate weaknesses in the American food safety system.

Tokyo, however, has questioned whether the mistake was unique, and whether similar errors might occur in other U.S. facilities certified to export to Japan.

The Canadian plant inspections were routine and unrelated to the illicit U.S. shipment, Health Ministry official Makoto Kanie said.

Japanese officials have now completed their tour of all Canadian facilities that export meat to Japan, according to Kanie.

Eight plants - including five in Alberta, two in Ontario and one in Saskatchewan - currently have permission to process Tokyo-bound shipments, Kanie said.

Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is a degenerative nerve disease in cattle. Eating contaminated meat products has been linked to the rare but fatal variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.

Canadian beef began reappearing on Tokyo supermarket shelves in December following the two-year ban. However, Canadian officials concede it might take years to rebuild the confidence of Japanese consumers in North American beef.

Entry into Japan is considered key to the long-term recovery plan of Canada's battered beef industry, which had suffered $7 billion in lost exports since 2003.

Cattle officials have pinned their hopes on a growing appetite from Pacific Rim countries to help reduce the reliance on the U.S. market, which gobbles up the vast majority of Canadian beef exports.

Before BSE was discovered in an Alberta cow in 2003 Japan was Canada's third largest beef export market after the U.S. and Mexico.
 
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