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Japan lifts beef ban on Dodge City plant

TOKYO - Japan's agricultural ministry said today it has lifted a ban on beef imports from a Kansas meatpacker, after concluding that the company took proper measures to prevent a problematic shipment that had forced the suspension last year.

Japan halted imports from Cargill Inc.'s plant in Dodge City in October after 225 boxes of a 9-ton shipment contained tendons that were not properly identified on papers issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Though the tendons did not pose a mad cow risk, Cargill had acknowledged that boxes bound elsewhere may have been erroneously sent to Japan.

The Agriculture Ministry said in a statement today that the plant can now resume shipment to Japan because Japanese agriculture and health officials examined a U.S. government report on the mistake, submitted this week, and "concluded that sufficient improvement measures have been taken to prevent the recurrence" of similar problems.

Citing the U.S. report, the ministry said the problem occurred as a warehouse agent for Cargill mistakenly included the boxes destined for elsewhere in shipments to Japan. To prevent a similar mistake, the warehousing company is now required to attach a special card to identify Japan-bound boxes.

Japan banned American beef imports in December 2003 after the first case of mad cow disease was found in the U.S. The ban was eased in July 2006.

Tokyo now allows imported meat from young cattle processed at selected plants on the condition certain bones and the spinal cord have been removed and the meat. But imports have dwindled at a fraction of what it used to be before the initial ban, and Washington continues to press Tokyo to entirely remove cattle age restrictions.

Associated Press