Reports that Japan may accept the American beef grading system for age verification in beef cattle is being viewed as just another step in a lengthy negotiating strategy to renew trade.
A Japanese scientific panel recommended acceptance of the United States Department of Agriculture proof of age proposal using a combination of meat quality and bone traits to prove animals were between 12 and 17 months old.
The U.S. and Canadian grading services already use bone ossification and meat texture to determine maturity at grading. As mammals mature, cartilage turns to bone.
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The Canadian Beef Grading Agency is preparing a similar plan due March 1 so that Canada is consistent with the American proposal. However, Canada will continue to push for age verification through its national identification program.
“We are certainly focusing more on the actual age verification through individual ID in Canada,” said manager Cindy Delaloye.
“We have to remember Japan’s domestic policy, that says every single animal consumed has to be tested for BSE, has to be revised before they will accept product that has not been tested,” she said.
USDA spokesperson Ed Loyd said secretary of agriculture Mike Johanns is pressuring the Japanese to set a date for when the U.S. cattle trade to Japan might resume.
The Americans have been negotiating with Japan since Dec. 26, 2003, to regain markets. Japan stopped the $1.7 billion beef trade when a case of BSE was confirmed in a Washington state dairy cow on Dec. 25. The cow was imported from Canada but the Japanese have not taken that into consideration.
Negotiators told Japan the U.S. has never had a domestic case of BSE and no positives have been found in more than 200,000 tests conducted since last June.
“If we have five cases of BSE in the U.S., we will find them,” said Chuck Lambert, deputy under secretary of marketing and regulatory programs within the USDA.
