S.K. will either destroy or send back shipment, per quarantine regulations
South Korea has decided that it will destroy or send back 10.2 metric tons of U.S. beef shipped early this month after some cuts were found to contain bone fragments. Beef shipments from the U.S. had been banned since late 2003 after an incident of mad cow disease in that country. This was only the third shipment of beef after Korea agreed to once again accept them, but on the condition that brain matter, spinal cord marrow, backbones, and certain internal organs - parts thought to carry the virus - be excluded. The first and second shipments also contained bone fragments and were sent back. The announcement coincided with a free trade negotiation underway in the U.S., with Washington pushing for Seoul to ease quarantine standards. "[Bone fragments] were not found in our X-ray screening process," said Kang Mun-il, chief of the National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service. "But we found seven bone fragments when we opened three boxes from the shipment."Kang explained that the reason why the X-ray screening failed to find the fragments was because they were too small to be detected. The agriculture ministry said that the prohibited parts seem to be included in the process of separating meat from bones at slaughterhouses in the U.S. prior to shipment. The beef to be destroyed or sent back is part of the third shipment South Korea imported from the U.S. after a discovery of bone fragments in its first shipment on November 23, as well as in a subsequent second shipment.
