News

Banned beef allegedly resold under falselabel

A story reported Tuesday in the Korea Times newspaper alleges that U.S. beef already in that country in December of 2003 was misrepresented as Australian andwas resold. Apparently two men, identified in the story only as Kim and Seon, hoarded tons of U.S. beef that Seon was to have destroyed at the time that BSE was discovered in the U.S.

Out of 29 tons of U.S. beef at a Korean discount store, Seon, who worked at the store,allegedly destroyed seven tons, and in the next year sold almost 13 tons of the remaining beef, which was mislabeled as Australian. The two, who have been indicted by Korean proscutors, also faked expiration dates on the beef and raked in more than $200,000 from the illicit sales.

The men claim that the remaining beef was never distributed, but the story says Korean prosecutors aren’t buying that. Officials continue their investigation and may expand it to determine if there are similar cases.