S.Korea rejects third shipment of U.S. beef
SOUTH KOREA - South Korea rejected a third batch of U.S. beef, this time from Iowa, after bone chips the size of pea were found in a package, the agriculture ministry said on Wednesday, adding it plans to return the 10.2-tonne shipment.South Korea, once the third-largest market for U.S. beef, has decided to return all 22 tonnes of U.S. beef recently received since the country lifted a three-year ban on the meat to the United States due to bone fragments.
The country said in September it would resume imports but place tough checks on products to make sure that parts it deemed as risky, such bones, were not included in the shipments.
"All of the imported beef from that (Iowa) shipment will be disposed (of) or returned to the United States and beef exports from that U.S. plant will be suspended temporarily," the ministry said in a statement.
Quarantine officials found seven bone chips in the cargo of chilled beef that arrived on Dec. 1, the ministry said.
South Korea accepts only boneless beef from cattle up to 30 months of age to guard against mad cow disease.
Source: Reuters