Taipei - Taiwan has suspended beef imports from a US packing house after finding crushed bones in a shipment from the company, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Saturday. On Friday, customs official at Keelung Harbour in the north of the island found two pieces of crushed bones in a 4.5-ton shipment of flank imported from the Swift Beef Co of Colorado, the DOH said in a statement.
The two pieces of crushed bones measure 1.5 and 4.5 centimetres.
As the US has had several cases of mad cow disease, Taiwan requires that only beef from cows under 30 months old - with bone, nerves and other dangerous parts removed - can be exported to Taiwan.
The meat should come from butchery and packing houses that are approved by both the US Department of Agriculture and Taiwan's DOH.
The DOH has ordered the importer of the questionable US beef to take back the shipment or to destroy it.
The DOH said it considers this an isolated incident, but has ordered a suspension of beef imports from the Swift Beef Co.
Taiwan banned beef imports from the US in December 2003 after the discovery in Washington state of a single case of mad cow disease.
In April 2005, Taiwan lifted the import ban on US boneless beef from animals under 30 months of age, but suspended US beef imports again on June 25 the same year after a second case of mad cow disease was confirmed in the US earlier that month.
Taiwan lifted the second ban on January 25, 2006, but in April 2006, Taiwan found crushed bones in a shipment of 44 kilograms of US beef, causing Taipei to halt imports from that packing house.
