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Ranchers.net

Consumers' Foundation pushes for U.S. beef ban


Group calls for better detection system for mad cow disease

2006-04-30 / STAFF REPORTER and agencies / By Jenny W. Hsu
The Consumers' Foundation called for an immediate ban and recall of American beef products yesterday after rib bone fragments were discovered in three meat shipments from a U.S. supplier, Tyson Fresh Meat, on Thursday.

U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesman Ed Lloyd vouched for the safety of U.S. meat Friday by saying the recently contaminated shipment to Taiwan was an isolated incident and did not indicate that American beef products are unsafe.

The Foundation blasted the Department of Health, however, saying it was putting people in danger by only removing the Nebraska-based meat supplier from the approved list and not totally prohibiting the importation of U.S. beef.

It pointed out that three months ago, Japan immediately reinstated the ban on U.S. meat products when spinal cord materials were found in a meat shipment at Narita Airport on January 20. Taiwan should follow the example of Japan in order to protect consumers' health, the Foundation said.

The Foundation also raised doubts on the safety of the beef by noting that the U.S. tests less than one percent of its cattle, an extremely low figure compared to Japan, another BSE-affected country, which inspects 100 percent of its herds.

Call for recall

The DOH should immediately recall all U.S. beef currently on the market and ban it from entering Taiwan until the U.S. government has established a better detection system for bovine encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, the Foundation said.

"Since 2006, the U.S. has reported three cases of mad cow disease while Japan has reported 25 cases," it said, adding the number does not mean the problem is more severe in Japan but is a reflection that Japan has a more comprehensive and rigorous detection mechanism to discover more cases than the U.S.

Furthermore, to evaluate the spread of BSE in the U.S., the consumers' group urged Taiwan to find out the locations and the names of the meat suppliers that exported contaminated meat to Hong Kong and Japan.

Taiwan banned beef imports from the U.S. in December 2003 after a single case of BSE was discovered in Washington State.

In April 2005, the ban was lifted under the condition that only meat from animals under 30 months of age be allowed to enter Taiwan. The ban was reinstated approximately two months later when a second case of BSE was discovered.

On January 25, 2006, five days after a contaminated shipment was discovered in Japan, DOH once again lifted the ban despite objections from the Legislative Yuan.
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