Japan bans beef from another U.S. plant
Date: 18 October 2007

TOKYO- Japan announced it has suspended beef imports from Cargill Inc.'s beef packing plant in Dodge City, Kansas October 17 because recent shipments from the plant contained tendons that reportedly were not identified properly on accompanying papers, according to the Associated Press.

Two hundred twenty-five boxes of a recent 9-ton shipment contained tendons that were not properly identified on papers issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, stated Japan's Agriculture Ministry. Shipments from this plant to Japan will remain banned until Japan gets a detailed explanation on how this happened, Japan's Agriculture Ministry added.

In December 2003, Japan halted American beef imports in the wake of the first bovine spongiform encephalopathy find in the United States. In July 2006, Japan eased that restriction to allow imported meat from young cattle as long as certain bones and the spinal cord had been removed and the meat had been processed at selected plants.
Tendons do not pose a mad cow risk, but Cargill reportedly acknowledged that boxes bound for other destinations inadvertently might have been sent to Japan. A Cargill spokesman said the U.S.D.A. is looking into how the tendons got into the shipment.

Reference
http://www.meatnews.com/news/headline_stories.asp?ArticleID=88906

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