Eating Disorders

... Meatpacker Sues Feds Over Mad Cow Test Meatpacker Sues Feds Over Mad Cow Test Staff and agencies23 March, 2006 By LIBBY QUAID, AP Food and Farm Writer 58 minutes ago WASHINGTON - A Kansas meatpacker sued the government on Thursday for refusing to let the company test for mad cow disease in every animal it slaughters.

"We‘re not in any way saying that U.S.

beef isn‘t safe; we believe it‘s the safest beef supply in the world, but that‘s not the issue," chief executive John Stewart said at a news conference.

Testing for mad cow disease in the United States is controlled by the department, which tests about 1 percent of the 35 million cattle, or about 350,000, that are slaughtered each year.

The department is planning to reduce that level of testing.

Private companies certified by the department make screening tests used to detect mad cow disease.

The department says it has sole authority over the sale and use of the tests.

Larger meatpackers worry that insistence from Japanese buyers would force them to do testing and that a suspect result might scare consumers away from eating beef.

Japan tests nearly all its cattle for mad cow disease.

While individual companies there may want more testing in the U.S., Japan‘s government is not asking the U.S.

to do the same.

Japan had only recently lifted a ban on American beef imposed after the first U.S.

case of mad cow disease in 2003.

Until then, Japan was the top foreign buyer of American beef, a...

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