October 08, 2004
Chinese beef - by no means inferior
This will be much safer than U.S. beef...
Matsuya Foods Co., Japan's second-largest chain of restaurants serving "gyudon" beef-on-rice dishes, said Friday it will reinstate theGood job guys! I honestly think a strong case could be made that allowing this to happen puts the Japanese consumer in much greater danger than reopening imports from the U.S. would.
popular menu item on Wednesday following a six-month hiatus.
Matsuya Foods said it will use a supply mainly consisting of Chinese beef. Australian beef will be mixed in with it in the dishes, it said.
But the Matsuya Foods move does not warrant unreserved optimism, the observers said. Japan has banned imports of Chinese beef that
is not first heat-treated following the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease that has struck Chinese cattle farms. Matsuya Foods plans to
import Chinese beef after heat-treating it in Chinese plants.
Company President Toshio Kawarabuki said Chinese beef "is tasty, tender and palatable."
"By no means is it inferior to U.S. beef," he added.
(Kyodo, 10/08/04)
