Mexico Quietly Agrees To Stop Shipments To U.S. Of Beef, Processed Poultry Over Safety Concerns
September 5, 2008 7:17 a.m. EST
Linda Young - AHN Editor Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Mexico has quietly agreed to stop shipments of beef and processed poultry to the United States after U.S. officials repeatedly raised concerns over the quality and safety of Mexican food.
The action comes less than two months after U.S. Department of Agriculture officials finally traced a U.S. salmonella outbreak to shipments of fresh jalapenos and serranos peppers grown in Mexico. It is difficult to trace illness back to the contaminated source food that caused it, so before officials traced the outbreak to Mexican peppers, they warned people away from American tomatoes, costing U.S. farmers tens of millions of dollars.
This voluntary curb on the export of Mexican meat and poultry comes ahead of any reported illnesses in the U.S. linked to Mexican meat.
"Mexico finally curbed exports of meat and poultry products from meatpacking plants with widespread safety problems, after weeks of diplomatic wrangling with American food safety regulators. A USDA audit of 11 Mexican meat plants found nearly two thirds had systemic safety problems including inadequate sanitation and government inspection procedures," Wenonah Hauter, executive director for Food & Water Watch, said in a statement Thursday. The organization is a Washington, D.C.-based non-government consumer rights group.
The group complained that despite its audit, the USDA had not acted to stop imports of questionable meat products from Mexico.
Similarly, the USDA's own data shows that problems with tainted fresh jalapenos and serranos peppers from Mexico was a longstanding problem even before the salmonella outbreak began in April.
The agency reportedly turned back dozens of cases of fresh jalapenos and serranos peppers in 2007 alone because of filth, illegal pesticides and, in at least one case, because of something poisonous.
About 84 percent of all fresh peppers eaten in the United States come from Mexico.
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7012185948
Mexico voluntarily halts meat shipments to U.S.
Associated Press
Sept. 4, 2008, 11:01PM
WASHINGTON — Mexico has voluntarily suspended shipments of meat and processed poultry to the United States after U.S. officials raised concerns about the quality of Mexican food processing and inspections, an Agriculture Department official said Thursday.
The department's Food Safety and Inspection Service identified systemic problems with sanitation controls and record-keeping during an annual audit that took place in Mexico between June 24 and July 31.
The voluntary suspension began Aug. 29, said Amanda Eamich, a spokeswoman for the service. About 2 percent of beef and poultry in the U.S. comes from Mexican producers.
"Safety concerns in multiple establishments were not identified by Mexican in-plant inspection personnel, demonstrating that Mexico's system to verify its plants were producing safe food in a clean facility was insufficient," Eamich said.
She said the audit report would be posted on the agency's Web site within 60 days.
Food & Water Watch, a consumer advocacy group, said it had raised concerns with the department in August about Mexico's meat and poultry exports.
"While we are pleased that the Mexican government decided to suspend its exports voluntarily on Aug. 29, USDA should have taken more decisive action to protect American consumers from unsafe meat imports," said Wenonah Hauter, the group's executive director.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/5984603.html#Intro
Friday, August 22, 2008
MEXICO blocks Alberta cattle following the discovery of Canada's 14th case of mad cow disease
http://madcowtesting.blogspot.com/2008/08/mexico-blocks-alberta-cattle-following.html
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