Reports: Japan to Begin Inspection at U.S. Beef Processing Plants

TOKYO — Japan is to begin inspection at U.S. meatpacking plants this weekend after Washington concluded that human and computer error caused recent shipments of banned beef to Japan, news reports said on Saturday.

The Japanese government is to send farm and welfare ministry officials to the United States on Sunday for on-site inspections at 10 meat processing plants, the Asahi Shimbun and Jiji Press said, quoting ministry officials.

The inspection will continue until August 31, Jiji said, adding that Tokyo may lift a suspension of imports from the plants as early as mid-September, based on inspection results.

Japan announced on Friday that the U.S. Department of Agriculture had recently sent reports to Tokyo on the cases, saying one of the two shipments of banned beef resulted from human error in the packing process in April.

The U.S. reports also noted that a programming mistake in computer software designed to compute the age of beef cows caused the other shipment of banned beef to Japan in January.

Japan has suspended beef imports from the U.S. meatpacking plants that shipped risky cuts in violation of a bilateral accord aimed at limiting the threat of mad cow disease.

Source: Agence France-Presse