SEOUL – Three major retailers in South Korea said Tuesday they will restart sales of U.S. beef on Thursday.

The companies, E-Mart, Home Plus and Lotte Mart said the decision was based on the slowing Korean economy.

The U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) is providing promotional support to the chains and believes sales at the retailers will prompt sales at other outlets. 

"USMEF has been actively urging all of the big chains to resume U.S. beef sales since mid-summer", said USMEF President and CEO Philip Seng. "We are very pleased that E-Mart, Home Plus and Lotte Mart have made the decision to re-enter the market with U.S. beef. 

South Korea imported about $816 million in beef and beef variety meats in 2003 – the last year the market was fully open, representing about 21 percent of the worldwide value of all U.S. beef exports. Last month, the first full month since the resumption of U.S. beef imports, South Korea was the largest market for American beef exports.

Source: American Meat Institute, U.S. Meat Export Federation

WASHINGTON – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday announced a draft compliance guide industry on regulations prohibiting the use of certain cattle materials in feed.

The agency said the document will publish Wednesday in the Federal Register and will be available for comment for 60 days.

In April 2008, the FDA reportedly published a final rule establishing a new regulation prohibiting: the entire carcass of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)-positive cattle; the brains and spinal cords from cattle 30 months of age and older; the entire carcass of cattle not inspected and passed for human consumption that are 30 months of age or older from which brains and spinal cords were not removed; tallow that is derived from BSE-positive cattle; tallow that is derived from other materials prohibited by this rule that contains more than 0.15 percent insoluble impurities; and mechanically separated beef that is derived from the materials prohibited by this rule.

The rule will go into effect on April 27, 2009.

To read the guidance, go to www.fda.gov/OHRMS/DOCKETS/98fr/FDA-2008-D-0597-gdl.pdf.

Source: American Meat Institute