The government has ordered meat wholesalers not to sell hundreds of tons of American T-bone steaks and other U.S. beef products considered at risk of carrying mad cow disease, health officials said Wednesday.
The order, issued Tuesday, affects 784 metric tons of steaks, soup stocks and other products made of bone parts, calf brains and other parts that were imported last year.
The ministry also ordered supermarkets and restaurants not to sell U.S. beef products containing cow backbones. Officials say cow backbones and their extracts could contain proteins called prions linked to the brain-wasting illness.
T-bone steaks were included because they are cut from the area where a cow's vertebrae meet its ribs -- a point that can contain spinal tissue and is considered risky.
The move covers products imported from the United States between Jan. 1, 2003, and Dec. 24, when Tokyo imposed a ban on all American beef imports in response to the discovery in Washington state of the first, and only, confirmed U.S. case of mad cow disease. The cow was born in Alberta.
U.S. officials have not detected a second case of the disease, but have yet to track down all the cattle from the infected cow's herd.
The U.S. government meanwhile insists that American beef products are safe, and is urging Japan to lift its ban.
