A former top farm ministry bureaucrat blamed for the outbreak of mad cow disease had been scheduled to take a post at a meat-industry organization but later declined the position, ministry officials confirmed Saturday.

Hideaki Kumazawa, who resigned as vice minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries on Jan. 8, informally accepted a post offered by the Japan Meat Conference in mid-January, but subsequently turned it down to avoid criticism, they said.

The organization is not among the special public corporations at which national civil servants are banned by law from taking jobs for a certain period after leaving their public posts.