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South Korea finds banned bones
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea said today it found bones, banned because of mad cow disease fears, in the latest shipment of American beef and will revoke import approval for the U.S. facility that processed it.
The facility was identified as one belonging to Colorado-based meatpacker Swift & Co., one of 36 American plants originally authorized to handle meat for export to South Korea.
A call was made to Swift before business hours and was not immediately returned.
The country's Agriculture and Forestry Ministry said rib bones were found Monday in one box of a 15.5-ton shipment that arrived in South Korea on Aug. 10.
The ministry said it will send the entire shipment back to the United States.
The U.S. facility, which had been suspended from shipping meat bound for South Korea on July 31 for a similar violation, will now be barred from exporting to South Korea, the ministry said in a statement.
The latest shipment had been sent July 29, two days before the suspension.
South Korea previously had revoked import approval for another facility and suspended three others from shipping meat after banned bones were discovered in shipments to South Korea.
The government's latest move — which came a week after Seoul resumed its quarantine inspections of U.S. beef — lowered to 31 the number of U.S. facilities authorized to process meat bound for South Korea.
Seoul halted quarantine inspections of U.S. beef in early August after discovering a shipment containing a vertebrae.
South Korea, formerly the third-largest foreign market for American beef, banned U.S. imports of it for almost three years after mad cow disease was discovered in the United States.
It partially reopened its market last year, but agreed to accept only boneless meat from cattle under 30-months old. Such meat is thought to be less at risk of carrying the disease.
Scientists believe mad cow disease spreads when farmers feed cattle recycled meat and bones from infected animals. The cattle disease is also believed to be linked to the rare but fatal human variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea said today it found bones, banned because of mad cow disease fears, in the latest shipment of American beef and will revoke import approval for the U.S. facility that processed it.
The facility was identified as one belonging to Colorado-based meatpacker Swift & Co., one of 36 American plants originally authorized to handle meat for export to South Korea.
A call was made to Swift before business hours and was not immediately returned.
The country's Agriculture and Forestry Ministry said rib bones were found Monday in one box of a 15.5-ton shipment that arrived in South Korea on Aug. 10.
The ministry said it will send the entire shipment back to the United States.
The U.S. facility, which had been suspended from shipping meat bound for South Korea on July 31 for a similar violation, will now be barred from exporting to South Korea, the ministry said in a statement.
The latest shipment had been sent July 29, two days before the suspension.
South Korea previously had revoked import approval for another facility and suspended three others from shipping meat after banned bones were discovered in shipments to South Korea.
The government's latest move — which came a week after Seoul resumed its quarantine inspections of U.S. beef — lowered to 31 the number of U.S. facilities authorized to process meat bound for South Korea.
Seoul halted quarantine inspections of U.S. beef in early August after discovering a shipment containing a vertebrae.
South Korea, formerly the third-largest foreign market for American beef, banned U.S. imports of it for almost three years after mad cow disease was discovered in the United States.
It partially reopened its market last year, but agreed to accept only boneless meat from cattle under 30-months old. Such meat is thought to be less at risk of carrying the disease.
Scientists believe mad cow disease spreads when farmers feed cattle recycled meat and bones from infected animals. The cattle disease is also believed to be linked to the rare but fatal human variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.