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Feds won't take Lexington plant off authorized export listLINCOLN, Nebraska (AP)--The U.S. Department of Agriculture has denied a Japanese request to remove a Nebraska processing plant from a list of plants authorized to export beef to Japan. In February, Japan stopped beef imports from a Lexington processing plant operated by Tyson Foods Inc., after finding boxes of beef that had not been verified as from cattle 20 months old or younger, as required by Japan. Japan has been skittish about foreign beef since the first case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy was found in the United States. Although the USDA declined the Japanese request, the Tyson plant remains under voluntary suspension, said USDA spokeswoman Amanda Eamich. Tyson, she said, is fixing the problem, and the shipment in question, while ineligible in part, was inspected and passed before being sent to Japan. Corrective measures have begun at the Lexington plant, said Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson. "Meanwhile, we continue to supply our Japanese customers through our six other beef processing plants," he said. Earlier this month, Japan ordered imports halted from Cargill Meat Solutions in Dodge City, Kan., after a beef shipment arrived without proper papers. In March, Japan suspended beef imports from California meatpacker Jobbers Meat Packing Co. Japan banned American beef imports in December 2003. The ban was eased once in December 2005, but tightened again the following month after prohibited spinal bones were found in a veal shipment. Tokyo eased the restrictions again in last July, but allows meat only from cattle ages 20 months or younger. No cases of BSE have ever been found in cattle those ages. B 13 4/30/07 4 Star NE Date: 4/25/07
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