Tyson Foods Beef Plant Snubbed By Tokyo
This article was published on Friday, March 23, 2007 7:58 PM CDT in Business
By THE MORNING NEWS
Japan recently asked that a Tyson Foods Inc. beef processing plant be removed from the government's approved list of eligible export suppliers. This latest move by the Japanese comes a month after trade was banned from a Lexington, Neb., beef packing plant owned by Tyson Fresh Meats, because it did not contain the proper documentation.
The farm and health ministries of Japan said in a recent news statement the decision to exclude shipments from the Tyson Foods plant was necessary because the U.S. government was unable to confirm the beef from the facility cleared the export terms.
"We're disappointed Japan has asked USDA to de-list the Lexington plant, especially since we acknowledged a mistake was made and have taken corrective measures," said Tyson Foods spokesman Gary Mickelson.
The Springdale-based food giant said an inadvertent beef shipment from the plant contained two boxes of beef from cattle that exceeded Japan's age limit of 20 months or younger.
The boxes did not contain any materials considered a possible risk for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly called mad cow disease, Mickelson said.
The Japanese government maintains the plant violated the bilateral agreement that limits U.S. beef exports to Japan from cattle aged 20 months or less to safeguard against mad cow disease, according to Japanese news sources.
Because the incident was characterized as a "human error" the Japanese government said it would not ban overall U.S. beef imports.
Tyson Foods said it would continue to work through the USDA in an effort to resolve the matter while serving its Japanese customers through its six other U.S. beef processing plants.
This article was published on Friday, March 23, 2007 7:58 PM CDT in Business
By THE MORNING NEWS
Japan recently asked that a Tyson Foods Inc. beef processing plant be removed from the government's approved list of eligible export suppliers. This latest move by the Japanese comes a month after trade was banned from a Lexington, Neb., beef packing plant owned by Tyson Fresh Meats, because it did not contain the proper documentation.
The farm and health ministries of Japan said in a recent news statement the decision to exclude shipments from the Tyson Foods plant was necessary because the U.S. government was unable to confirm the beef from the facility cleared the export terms.
"We're disappointed Japan has asked USDA to de-list the Lexington plant, especially since we acknowledged a mistake was made and have taken corrective measures," said Tyson Foods spokesman Gary Mickelson.
The Springdale-based food giant said an inadvertent beef shipment from the plant contained two boxes of beef from cattle that exceeded Japan's age limit of 20 months or younger.
The boxes did not contain any materials considered a possible risk for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly called mad cow disease, Mickelson said.
The Japanese government maintains the plant violated the bilateral agreement that limits U.S. beef exports to Japan from cattle aged 20 months or less to safeguard against mad cow disease, according to Japanese news sources.
Because the incident was characterized as a "human error" the Japanese government said it would not ban overall U.S. beef imports.
Tyson Foods said it would continue to work through the USDA in an effort to resolve the matter while serving its Japanese customers through its six other U.S. beef processing plants.