U.S. meat packers conforming to safety standards: inspectors

SEOUL, April 20 (Yonhap) -- U.S. meat packers that ship beef to South Korea are
conforming to legal safety and sanitation standards, government inspectors said
Monday.
The officials from the National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service
(NVRQS), who carried out on-site inspections of 22 companies from March 29
through early last week, claimed all facilities were properly removing specified
risk materials (SRMs) and had standard sanitation operating procedures and hazard
analysis systems in place to ferret out meat that could pose health problems.
SRMs, which include tonsils and intestinal parts from all animals regardless of
age, must be removed because they run the greatest risk of transmitting mad cow
disease to humans.
The 10-person group of three teams said the U.S. meat packers were enforcing
rules on downer cattle that may have contracted mad cow disease and were taking
steps to differentiate the butchering process for animals over 30 months old,
which require that more parts be removed.
NVRQS said it also conducted an inspection of a company in Colorado that was once
caught by authorities in the U.S. of exporting substandard beef. The officials
said that the meat packer had since adhered to the safety regime set by the U.S.
Food Safety and Inspection Service.
They noted, however, that more inspections would be carried out on the Colorado
facility to make certain that it does not send bad meat to South Korea.
The inspections are a follow up to a revised beef trade pact reached last year
that effectively lifted Seoul's ban on most imports of U.S. beef.
The new rules ended restrictions on U.S. beef that had been in place since late
2003 after Washington confirmed its first case of mad cow disease.
yonngong@yna.co.kr
(END)