WASHINGTON - South Korea has named the supplier of a shipment of frozen U.S. beef allegedly carrying the E. coli 0157:H7 bacteria as IBP Inc (IBP), a U.S. Department of Agriculture spokeswoman said.
Jacque Knight of the department's Food Safety and Inspection Service said South Korea identified the supplier of the suspect beef as an IBP Inc plant in Dakota City, Nebraska.
She said USDA was in the process of checking records to see if that was accurate.
Knight said FSIS was "not aware of any problems at all in this plant" in meeting meat inspection standards.
IBP was named as the source of the suspect meat in a statement issued by the South Korean Agriculture Ministry, two USDA press aides said.
Since January, U.S. slaughterhouses have been required to conduct one test for every 300 beef carcasses for the presence of any strain of E. coli.
Under USDA rules, the O157:H7 strain is an adulterant and not allowed in ground beef. Cooking would be expected to destroy the bacteria if it was present on boxed or boneless beef because it would stay on the surface of the meat.
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