South Korea stopping imports of Nebraska beef

SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea said Friday it would suspend imports of American beef from a U.S. slaughterhouse after government inspectors found three pieces of bone in a shipment.

The National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service said the shipment containing the bone originated from Premium Protein Products LLC, a beef processing plant in Hastings, Neb.

The move came a week after Seoul suspended U.S. beef imports from a Kansas slaughterhouse after a tiny piece of bone was found in a shipment.

South Korea, which had banned U.S. beef for almost three years over mad cow disease fears, in September said it would allow shipments under strict regulations, including only allowing boneless cuts of beef.

The three fragments measured 22 millimeters (0.9 inch), 13 millimeters (0.5 inch) and 7 millimeters (0.3 inch) in length, respectively, and were discovered in a 3.2 ton shipment of beef that arrived on Nov. 23, according to the Agriculture and Forestry Ministry.

The ministry also said that the bone material was not considered SRM, or specified risk material, which can carry mad cow disease, such as the vertebral column, or backbone, brain, skull, eyes, spinal cord and other nerve tissue.

Still, as in the Kansas case, the ministry said the beef would either be returned to the U.S. or discarded.

Premium Protein Products express surprise at the discovery.

“Until we learn more about how big the bone fragment is and what it looks like, it's a little difficult to comment,” said CEO Steve Sands. “We were quite surprised given how close our Korean customer was involved.”

Sands said the Korean customer was in the plant and “was very involved in every aspect of the production.”

Premium Protein Products also exports beef to Japan and Mexico among other countries and sands said he didn't think the South Korean discovery would have any effect on shipments to those markets.

Hastings is about 130 miles west (208 kilometers) west of Omaha, Nebraska's largest city.

South Korea shut its doors to U.S. beef imports in December 2003 after the first reported U.S. case of mad cow disease. The country was the third-largest foreign market for American beef before the ban.

Scientists believe mad cow disease, formally called bovine spongiform encephalopathy, spreads when farmers feed cattle recycled meat and bones from infected animals. It is also believed to be linked to a rare, fatal human variant, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

In January, South Korea agreed to resume American beef imports on a limited basis - boneless meat only from cattle younger than 30 months old, because of beliefs that some material inside bones could be dangerous to consume and the younger animals are safer from mad cow disease.

The ministry designated 36 U.S. slaughterhouses to handle meat for export to South Korea after ensuring that they met required sanitary and safety measures.

With the two suspensions, that number is now down to 34.

The first shipments of beef arrived last month, though so far none of the U.S. meat has appeared on store shelves as it goes through a rigorous quarantine process.