Japan commission reviews limits on U.S. beef imports

Japan’s Food Safety Commission will hold meeting on July 24 to discuss whether to approve the government’s proposal to ease restrictions on U.S. beef imports, said Makato Osone, a commission official.

A 13-member committee led by Nihon University Professor Takeo Sakai will hold its seventh meeting since the government asked it to assess the health risks of relaxing restrictions imposed to safeguard against mad-cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, Osone said.

Japan restricts U.S. beef imports to cattle 20 months old or younger as older animals are at higher risk of having the brain-wasting disease. The regulation was put in place before Japan resumed purchases in 2005 of American beef, which had been banned since the first discovery of the disease in the U.S. in 2003. Japan also requires U.S. shippers to remove materials such as spinal cords from all cattle of any age before exports.

“The committee members will begin wrapping up their discussion on the issue over the past seven months,” Osone said today by phone. “If they don’t make decisions in the gathering next week, they may hold another meeting in August.”

Japan’s health ministry proposed in December to raise the age limit to 30 months, widening opportunities for U.S. beef shippers such as Tyson Foods Inc. to boost sales to Japan, the largest export market before the ban.

The Food Safety Commission must confirm that any change in policy won’t increase human health risks before the government decides to ease restrictions, Osone said.

Japan’s ban on U.S. beef prompted restaurant chain operator Yoshinoya Holdings Co. to suspend sales of its “gyudon” beef bowl. The U.S. was the largest beef exporter to Japan after Australia in 2003, supplying 267,583 metric tons worth 128.5 billion yen ($1.6 billion), according to data from the agriculture ministry.

Cattle futures for October delivery slid 0.2 percent to $1.1975 a pound on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange at 6:34 p.m. in Tokyo. U.S. beef sales to Japan, excluding variety meat, or offal, will likely expand to 150,000 tons this year from 120,605 tons in 2011, Philip Seng, president and CEO of the U.S. Meat Export Federation, said in Tokyo on April 11.