USDA Confirms Broke Beef Agreement

WASHINGTON - Jan 20/06 - SNS -- U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns confirmed the United States broke the agreement reached with Japan to in order to restart trade in beef and said the company which shipped the contaminated beef has been de-listed and cannot ship export beef.

"We take this matter very seriously," Johanns said in a statement. "We are conducting a thorough investigation. Under U.S. regulations, the backbone, or vertebral column, that was exported to Japan is not a specified risk material because it was in beef under 30 months. However, our agreement with Japan is to export beef with no vertebral column and we have failed to meet the terms of that agreement."

Food inspectors at Japan's Narita International Airport near Tokyo found the material in a 390 kg or 860 pounds shipment of beef from a meat packer in New York. These body parts are considered at risk of carrying BSE or Mad Cow disease.

"The processing plant that exported this product has been de-listed and therefore can no longer export beef to Japan. We will take the appropriate personnel action against the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service employee who conducted the inspection of the product in question and approved it to be shipped to Japan.

"I am dispatching a team of USDA inspectors to Japan to work with Japanese inspectors to reexamine every shipment currently awaiting approval, to confirm compliance with the requirements of our export agreement with Japan.

"I have directed that additional USDA inspectors be sent to every plant that is approved to export beef to review procedures and ensure compliance with our export agreements and I am requiring that two USDA inspectors review every shipment of U.S. beef for export to confirm that compliance. I have also ordered unannounced inspections at every plant approved for beef export.

"We are in communication with Japanese officials and we will continue that dialogue to assure them that we take this matter very seriously and we are acting swiftly and firmly.

"These additional inspection requirements in the U.S. will be applied to all processing plants approved for beef export and all beef shipments designated for export from the U.S."