S. Korea Suspends Quarantine Inspection On U.S. Beef
SEOUL - South Korea has suspended quarantine inspections of U.S. beef pending a full investigation into two mislabeled shipments, the government said Monday.
4 June 2007
1 minute read
The two shipments, containing 66.4 tons of American beef, are being sent back because they were processed for the U.S. market -- not the South Korean market -- and did not meet standards set by the export verification (EV) standards agreed upon by Seoul and Washington last year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry said.
The EV program outlines procedures that meat U.S. processors must follow when exporting beef to South Korea.
"The United States notified Seoul over the weekend that two shipments of beef were not meant for export, but were processed for domestic consumption," said Kim Chang-seob, chief veterinary officer at the ministry said. He said Richard Raymond, the undersecretary for food safety at the U.S. Agriculture Department, sent a letter notifying Seoul of Washington's findings.
He said the U.S. government requested that shipments be sent back, and said a probe will be carried out to determine how the wrong meat was sent to South Korea.
