PJ Huffstadter and Tom Polansek
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Meat processor JBS said on Wednesday that the Chinese government had blocked a shipment of U.S. beef from its Greeley, Colorado, plant after it found traces of the feed additive ractopamine in beef bound for China.
Brazil’s JBS, the world’s largest beef producer, said in a statement it was working with U.S. and Chinese authorities to resolve the situation and that other JBS beef facilities in the U.S. were not affected.
The suspension took effect Monday, according to a notice posted on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) website.
Ractopamine is a feed additive used to increase animal weight. Its use is banned or restricted in at least 160 countries, including the European Union, Russia and China.
Additionally, effective the same day, China suspended exports of meat and poultry products shipped from Coulport Oakland in Oakland, California, according to a spokesperson for the USDA’s Office of Food Safety and Science.
Cool Port Oakland is a refrigerated facility that stores perishables and other sensitive items, including food and medicine. The company did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
“Chinese Customs detected ractopamine in some of the frozen beef omasum products exported to China from these facilities and have destroyed the products in accordance with Chinese regulations,” a USDA FSIS spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
USDA FSIS is conducting an investigation, a spokesman said.
Earlier this year, leading food safety, environmental and animal rights groups filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, asking it to reconsider its approval of ractopamine, alleging that the drug endangers human health and stresses farm animals before slaughter.
The restrictions caused beef futures on the Chicago Board of Trade to fall sharply on Wednesday, with the most-traded August fresh beef futures dropping by the most since May 1, analysts said.
(Reporting by PJ Huffstadter and Tom Polansek in Chicago; Additional reporting by Lisa Bertlein in Los Angeles; Editing by Leslie Adler and Matthew Lewis)
