Banned spine parts turn up in U.S. beef

A high-risk material that violates a bilateral trade accord has been found in beef imported from the United States, the farm ministry announced Wednesday.

The ministry said that a small amount of spinal columns were found in a box of beef imported from U.S. meat processor National Beef's processing facility in California during inspection at a meat-processing facility in Japan.

Spinal columns, spinal cords and brains have been designated as materials at risk of spreading mad cow disease. The spinal columns were the first to surface since Japan resumed U.S. beef imports in July 2006.

Complete removal of at-risk materials was one of the conditions for Tokyo's agreement to resume imports of U.S. beef.

The box was among some 700 boxes of beef, equivalent to 17 tons, from the U.S. meat processor. The beef arrived in Tokyo port last August and had been in storage since then, the ministry said.

The beef was supposed to be shipped to Yoshinoya, a well-known "gyudon" chain known for specializing in "beef bowls" featuring shaved beef on rice.

Yoshinoya Holdings Co., the operator of the ubiquitous gyudon chain, said it will continue serving beef bowls, adding that its quality-control system has no problems.

But major supermarket chain Daiei Inc. was quick to suspend sales of beef imported from the same California facility, beginning Thursday.

Although nearly two years have passed since U.S. beef imports resumed, Japanese consumers still appear divided over the safety of U.S. beef. Daiei's swift decision apparently reflects such sentiments.

The agricultural ministry said it has informed the U.S. Embassy of its findings and will tighten its inspections of imported beef. The government will also urge Washington to pin down the cause of the problem.

Japan's first ban on U.S. beef imports was instituted in December 2003, after a Canadian-born cow tested positive in Washington state for mad cow disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy.