060133 USDA Gives “Refresher” on Japan's Requirements

Washington - A meat industry group is apologizing for sending prohibited cuts of beef to Japan, an error that sparked a suspension in imports worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Japan halted imports of U.S. beef on Friday after finding a shipment that contained backbone, which Asian countries consider at risk for mad cow disease. The cuts -- veal hotel rack, which has rib bones connected to the spine -- are eaten in the United States but not allowed in Japan.

At an Agriculture Department meeting hastily arranged by Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, a National Meat Association official called the error "a setback and a great embarrassment" to other companies in the industry.

"The shipment of bone-in product to Japan by one small company that failed to meet the requirements is a major breakdown and is inexcusable," association executive director Rosemary Mucklow said Tuesday, reading aloud from a letter to Johanns.

"We earnestly ask that you convey our apologies to Japanese government officials as you seek to reopen this market again," Mucklow said.

The company that shipped the veal rack, Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Atlantic Veal & Lamb, did not attend the meeting. The company, whose export certification was rescinded by the Agriculture Department, said last week that it shipped the veal in response to a Japanese customer's order and had made an honest mistake.

The error jeopardized a market worth $1.4 billion in 2003, the year before Japan banned the importation of American beef.

Only weeks ago Japan reopened its market, which had been closed since the United States discovered its first case of mad cow disease in December 2003. The U.S. found a second case of the brain-wasting disease in 2005.

Japan confirmed its 22nd case Tuesday. The disease was also in the news Monday, when Canada confirmed its fourth case of mad cow disease.

Johanns said the department is still investigating what went wrong with the shipment to Japan. Japan is waiting for a report; in the meantime, Johanns sent a top deputy to Tokyo for meetings with Japanese officials.

"We must ensure that mistakes are not repeated," Johanns told the group. "Billions of dollars of trade literally hang in the balance on these issues."

About three dozen companies and industry groups were represented at the meeting in an Agriculture Department auditorium. Johanns summoned them for a refresher course on export rules and filling out forms.

Johanns had said Friday it appeared the government inspector didn't realize from the paperwork at the plant that veal hotel rack is a cut that contains backbone. Johanns is now requiring a second inspector to sign off on each shipment to Japan.

The agriculture secretary also dispatched extra inspectors to U.S. meat processing plants, ordered unannounced inspections and took several other steps to reassure Japan.

At issue in the export rules for Japan are materials that can carry mad cow disease, such as the vertebral column, or backbone, brain, skull, eyes, spinal cord and other nerve tissue.

In the United States, these so-called "specified risk materials" must be removed from beef from cows older than 30 months; infection levels are believed to rise with age. In Japan, those parts must be removed from cattle at any age.

In addition, Japan requires that U.S. shipments come from cattle younger than 21 months of age.

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, is the medical name for mad cow disease, a degenerative nerve disease in cattle. In people, eating meat or cattle products contaminated with BSE is linked to a rare, fatal human disease, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

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