Korea Beef

[Mike]

LEAD) S. Korean inspectors find bone fragment, ban sale of U.S. beef
SEOUL, Nov. 24 (Yonhap) -- South Korea decided Friday not to allow the first shipment of U.S. beef to be sold in the country after discovering a bone fragment in a package, the government said Friday.

The discovery is expected to fuel health concerns about the safety of U.S. beef.

After a nearly three-year ban due to the discovery of mad cow disease in the United States, South Korea resumed imports of American beef from cows under 30 months old in early September. The first shipment of 8.9 tons of beef in about 720 separate packages arrived on Oct. 30.

"The bone fragment was discovered in a package containing chuck flap tail meat," said Kang Mun-il, chief of the National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service.

He said the fragment was not attached to meat and may have gotten into the package by mistake. U.S. meat processing centers use machine tools to separate bones from meat, raising the possibility of some bone fragments getting into packages.

"A detailed examination has revealed that the bone does not pose any health risks to humans," he said, but since the fragment was found, Seoul has decided to adhere to the agreement with the U.S. and not allow the beef in the first shipment to be sold.

He added that the U.S. meat processing center that shipped the beef will be barred from exporting meat to South Korea.

The ban only applies to this shipment, and 35 other meat processing centers are allowed to send products to South Korea.

"The entire shipment will either be sent back or destroyed," Kang said. He said Seoul will ask the U.S. government to take measures to prevent bones and other risk materials from being shipped by mistake.

South Korea had agreed to resume imports of U.S. beef, but banned bone parts and specified risk materials such as brains, spinal cord marrow, backbones, and certain internal organs that could spread mad cow disease to humans.

Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, spreads when cattle are fed recycled meat and bones. The disease can cause Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.

[email protected]
(END)

 

[Sandhusker]

The USDA sure negotiates great deals, don't they?

 

[Econ101]

The plant was in Kansas by the below article. Whose was it?

DJ South Korea Official: Discovered Bone In US Beef Shipment



Agriculture Online

7:55 PM, November 23, 2006



SEOUL (AP)--Government inspectors have discovered a bone in a shipment of

U.S. beef, an agriculture ministry official said Friday.



Kim Chang-seob, chief veterinary officer of South Korea's Agriculture and

Forestry Ministry, provided no other details. Yonhap news agency reported that

the bone was found in a shipment of beef that arrived on Oct. 30.



South Korea, which banned U.S. beef for almost three years over mad-cow

disease fears, recently said it would allow in shipments under strict

regulations, including only allowing boneless cuts of beef.



DJ S Korea: To Stop Beef Imports From 1 US Slaughterhouse



8:28 PM, November 23, 2006



SEOUL (AP)--South Korea said Friday it would suspend imports of U.S. beef

from a single slaughterhouse after government inspectors found a bone in a

shipment, an agriculture ministry official said Friday.



In a statement, the agriculture ministry said that the shipment originated

from a slaughterhouse in the state of Kansas. The statement didn't identify the

facility by name.



South Korea, which banned U.S. beef for almost three years over fears of the

mad-cow disease, recently said it would allow in shipments under strict

regulations, including only allowing boneless cuts of beef.



The ministry statement didn't identify the Kansas facility by name.



Yonhap news agency reported that the bone was found in a shipment of beef

that arrived on Oct. 30.



South Korea shut its doors to U.S. beef imports in December 2003 after the

first reported U.S. case of mad-cow disease. The country was the third-largest

foreign market for American beef before the ban.



In September this year, South Korea reached a full agreement with the U.S. to

re-open its market to American beef.



Scientists believe mad-cow disease, formally called bovine spongiform

encephalopathy, spreads when farmers feed cattle recycled meat and bones from

infected animals. It is also believed to be linked to a rare, fatal human

variant, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.



(END) Dow Jones Newswires



agriculture.com

 

[S.S.A.P.]

Believe it was Creekstone as the date arrived and tonnage are the same .... unless there was another shipment from another company to arrive at the same time.

http://www.cattlenetwork.com/Content.asp?ContentID=85134

US Packer: Beef Export Process To S. Korea On Track

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The inspection of the first shipment of U.S. beef to South Korea in more than two years is on track and results are expected next week, an official at the U.S. supplier Creekstone Farms Premium Beef LLC said Friday.

Creekstone Senior Vice President of Operations Kevin Pentz contradicted reports out of Seoul that protesters managed to halt the import inspection process.

"All indications," Pentz told Dow Jones Newswires, show "that the inspection process is continuing."

He said the company is in constant touch with South Korean contacts and the word, as of today, is that the process is on schedule.

The nine-ton shipment of beef from Creekstone arrived in South Korea on Oct. 30 and company officials said they were informed the rigorous inspection process - including x-rays to determine if there are bones in the cases – would take 10 to 15 days.

Protesters were successful in seeking to block U.S. beef by arguing that x-ray screening could present a food safety threat, according to a story run Thursday by The Korea Times.

Pentz confirmed that the x-ray issue was brought up by protesters, but stressed it was just another excuse by local groups "to block the inspection process."

Creekstone is prepared to quickly send more beef to South Korea if the company gets the thumbs-up it expects from government inspectors next week.

South Korea was the second-largest foreign market for U.S. beef until December 2003, when the country - along with most other major markets – banned U.S. beef. The bans came around Dec. 23, 2003, when the USDA announced finding the first case of mad-cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, in the U.S.

South Korea partially lifted its ban on U.S. beef on Sept. 8, but U.S. producers were hesitant to ship because of uncertainty over the country's import restrictions. Creekstone is, so far, the first.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced on Nov. 9 that it had made progress in improving conditions for U.S. beef producers to export to South Korea. A USDA delegation met with officials this week in Seoul in an attempt to get an agreement on a tolerance level for bone fragments in beef shipments.

Source: Bill Tomson, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-646-0088; [email protected].

 

[flounder]

The beef, which will be returned or destroyed, came from Creekstone Farms Premium Beef LLC, Kang Mun Il, director general at the National Veterinary Research & Quarantine Service said today. Further shipments from Creekstone have been barred until it provides an explanation for the piece of bone, Kang said. Other beef shipments from the U.S. are unaffected...........

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_4716670


TSS

 

[Econ101]

Sure would have been nice to have bse tested meat so you didn't have to worry about bone fragments.

I think the USDA should pick up the tab on that shipment as it is their policy that promoted this outcome.

It should come right out of Johann's pay and his buddies that are cheating domestic competitors for cattle.

 

[PORKER]

This will help Creekstone out in Court.

 

[Jason]

Do you really think Asian markets would ignore SRM violations because cattle were tested?

This was a bone chip, maybe from a non SRM part of the animal. This is politics, always has been. Tested beef with bone chips would be rejected under the same deal.

What this does show is Creekstone makes mistakes. If it was a Tyson plant I bet the comments from the peanut gallery would be different.

 

[Econ101]

Do you really think Asian markets would ignore SRM violations because cattle were tested?

This was a bone chip, maybe from a non SRM part of the animal. This is politics, always has been. Tested beef with bone chips would be rejected under the same deal.

What this does show is Creekstone makes mistakes. If it was a Tyson plant I bet the comments from the peanut gallery would be different.

Do you think Australian beef comes under such scrutiny?

 

[Silver]

Do you really think Asian markets would ignore SRM violations because cattle were tested?

This was a bone chip, maybe from a non SRM part of the animal. This is politics, always has been. Tested beef with bone chips would be rejected under the same deal.

What this does show is Creekstone makes mistakes. If it was a Tyson plant I bet the comments from the peanut gallery would be different.

Do you think Australian beef comes under such scrutiny?

Does Australia have a bse problem?

 

[Sandhusker]

Do you really think Asian markets would ignore SRM violations because cattle were tested?

This was a bone chip, maybe from a non SRM part of the animal. This is politics, always has been. Tested beef with bone chips would be rejected under the same deal.

What this does show is Creekstone makes mistakes. If it was a Tyson plant I bet the comments from the peanut gallery would be different.

Yes, I do think they would be more lenient on bone chips. They're being hard-asses about this because they didn't want untested beef in the first place.

 

[Anonymous]

The Aussies are probably sitting there chuckling as they count their scheckels- knowing they have a huge benefactor in the bullheaded idiots at the USDA... Yep- this shoud strengthen Creekstones court argument- to show that their is no way a US beef company can meet the USDA negotiated requirements...I wonder if they knew what probably would happen-- the reason they were the first to send a shipment to Korea-- get something on the record for court--because its well known that there is absolutely no way you can fulfill a zero tolerance on bone criteria.....
-------------------------------------------------------

South Korea Rejects First U.S. Beef Since Ending Ban (Update3)

By Meeyoung Song and Madelene Pearson

Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) -- South Korea, the third-largest buyer of U.S. beef in 2003, rejected the first shipment of the meat to arrive since lifting a three-year ban imposed on mad-cow fears, saying it found a bone fragment that violated an agreement.

The beef, which will be returned or destroyed, came from Creekstone Farms Premium Beef LLC, Kang Mun Il, director general at the National Veterinary Research & Quarantine Service said today. Shipments from Creekstone have been barred until it provides an explanation, Kang said. Imports from other U.S. companies are unaffected.

U.S. processors including Tyson Foods Inc. and Cargill Inc. were only allowed to return to the Korean market, worth $814 million to them in 2003, after agreeing to limit supplies to boneless beef. Zero tolerance on bone chips will make it very difficult for the U.S. to return to the market, said Peter Weeks, chief economist at Meat and Livestock Australia.
``It's certainly a bit of a disaster for the U.S.,'' Weeks, chief economist at the trade group, said by phone from Sydney. ``We know from the American side that they're going to find it very hard, if not impossible, to guarantee that there's no bone chip in the product.''

South Korea had been under pressure from the U.S. to resume beef imports amid negotiations for a free trade agreement with the U.S. that may result in an extra $29 billion of trade each year. The two nations are aiming to conclude talks by the first quarter of next year so President George W. Bush can approve it before his trade authority expires in July 2007.

Mad-Cow Bans

U.S. beef suppliers to South Korea must ensure that bones, intestines, spinal cord and brains are removed from the meat, the South Korean agriculture ministry has said. The beef must also come from cattle no older than 30 months.

South Korea and Japan were among 60 countries that imposed bans on U.S. beef after an animal with mad-cow disease was found in Washington state in December 2003. Before the ban, U.S. meat processors had been exporting about $7.5 billion annually in beef, beef products, live cattle and related commodities such as bull semen.

``The bone doesn't seem to be specified risk material, but it goes against the agreement with the U.S. to ship only boneless beef, so we disqualified the shipment,'' Kang said. ``We will decide whether to resume imports from that company after we receive a logical explanation that we can understand.''

The bone measured about 10 millimeters (0.4 inch) long and 6 millimeters wide.
Trade Violation

Telephone calls to numbers on Thornton, Colorado-based Creekstone's Web site were not answered.

The bone is ``unrelated to mad cow disease,'' said Park Jeong Min, a Seoul-based spokeswoman for the U.S. Meat Export Federation. ``The problem arose because it violated the trade conditions, not because there is a problem regarding the safety of the meat. Many countries import U.S. beef with bones.''

Australian beef suppliers have been some of the biggest beneficiaries of the Korean ban on U.S. beef, Weeks said.

The nation is targeting record exports of 140,000 metric tons of beef to Korea in 2006, worth A$805 million ($624 million), he said. That compares to the 62,300 tons, or A$272 million, shipped in 2003, prior to the U.S. being barred from the market, Weeks said.

Japan Rejection

Swift & Co., the third-largest U.S. beef producer, said on Nov. 8 exports of the meat to Japan from its plant in Greeley, Colorado, were suspended after a box of thymus gland was found in a Swift shipment at the port of Osaka.

While the gland is not considered one of the risk materials for mad-cow disease, Swift said the company wasn't licensed to ship the product to Japan. Japan only began accepting U.S. exports of beef in July, after banning the meat in December of 2003 because of concerns about mad-cow disease.

Mad-cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is a brain-wasting livestock illness that scientists say is spread in cattle by tainted feed. Eating contaminated meat from infected animals can cause a fatal human form of the disease, which has been blamed for the deaths of more than 150 people in the U.K., where it was first reported in the 1980s.

To contact the reporter on this story: Meeyoung Song in Seoul at [email protected]

Last Updated: November 24, 2006 00:40 EST

 

[Econ101]

Personally I like a little bone in my T-bone. Average Koreans probably do too. They just want to know the t-bone they are eating is safe as much as the science of the day can provide. Notice I did not say "sound" science which is whatever sounds good to the bigheads at USDA.

 

[S.S.A.P.]

Mike, Sandhusker, Econ101, flounder, Oldtimer, porker - can any of you tell me what specific "cuts" South Korea has traditionally purchased from the US and which 'cuts' have been purchased since trade has resumed in 2006?

I'm simply curious as ["The bone fragment was discovered in a package containing chuck flap tail meat,"] I've never heard of 'chuck flap tail meat' before.

 

[Econ101]

Mike, Sandhusker, Econ101, flounder, Oldtimer, porker - can any of you tell me what specific "cuts" South Korea has traditionally purchased from the US and which 'cuts' have been purchased since trade has resumed in 2006?

I'm simply curious as ["The bone fragment was discovered in a package containing chuck flap tail meat,"] I've never heard of 'chuck flap tail meat' before.

I never heard of it either and I have heard of a lot of different names for different cuts. The chuck is in the front and the tail is on the other end.

Sorry, I don't know.

 

[Mike]

http://www.cbef.com/products/Prod_Beef_Chuck_116G.htm

 

[Econ101]

If they are taking that meat off the shoulder blade mechanically, they are very likely to get a bone fragment as it is a more delicate bone.

I am not that familiar with the cut or how it is cut out. I wouldn't think the shoulder blade would have the SRM risk that the vertebrae would have, not that it matters.

Where is beefman when you need him?

Thanks Mike.

 

[PORKER]

There is a mistake in translation. Yes its chuck an it,s flap meat or trim.

 

[mwj]

http://www.cbef.com/products/Prod_Beef_Chuck_116G.htm

Mike shame on you that picture is for Canadian beef :shock: You should be aware that our good cattle don't have no stinkin flaps on there tails :???: :lol:

 

[S.S.A.P.]

mwj - that's a good one! There should be an Flap EPD (effective poop deterent) for any cattle that you have to stand behind. (eye glasses don't count) :!:

Thanks Mike, I'd already looked that up - but I'm still wondering if you guys know the cuts the US usually exported to South Korea.