EINNEWS, December 3—Japan’s largest food service company has quietly begun importing U.S. beef, seven years after U.S. beef imports were suspended because of fears of mad cow disease.
Japan lifted its ban on U.S. cattle aged 20 months or younger in 2006, but Zensho continued to use Australian, New Zealand, Mexican and Canadian beef exclusively until just a few weeks ago.
In a press release dated November 30, and circulated with little fanfare, the company said it had resumed importing American beef “that meets strict and proprietary food safety assurance standards imposed by the company.”
The release said that the new product is branded as “Zensho SFC beef” and is certified to be free from any feed containing BSE-responsible material. To insure the beef’s safety, the company said, the U.S. exporter, JBS USA, is required to “prepare and maintain program and compliance records of SFC cattle from birth through harvest and shipping.”
Zensho operates more than 100 restaurants in Japan, including Korean-style barbecue restaurants.
Until the 2003 mad cow scare, Japan was the biggest buyer of American beef. The ban was relaxed in 2005 to allow meat from young cattle. But many Japanese importers have continued to avoid U.S. beef raised under industrial type conditions.
Resumption of beef imports was one of the key issues in recent negotiations between the U.S. and South Korea during President Obama’s recent visit to that country. South Koreans staged street demonstrations against U.S. beef imports based on perceived food safety risks.
Zensho has been actively seeking a U.S. partner who would agree to raise and ship beef to Japan under tightly controlled conditions including feeding of the cattle, use of anti-biotics and other drugs, living conditions and traceability. JBS USA, a Greeley, Colorado company, was selected.
Zensho says that under the agreement with JBS USA, JBS “strictly segregates Zensho SFC cattle during the transportation, finishing and processing stages and Zensho SFC cattle are processed in the JBS USA plant only at the beginning of a production shift and only after all equipment and facilities have been sanitized and inspected.”
Zensho says the its “newly founded SFC Control Unit” continuously monitors the entire process.
Read more news about JBS USA at http://foodsafety.einnews.com/news/jbs-usa.
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