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| 6th Report of Market Access Ombudsman Council (March 16, 2000) |
1. Complainant: Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry
2. Ministry concerned: Ministry of Health and Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
3. Complaint:
Monitoring tests for O-157 on imported meat are conducted by both the animal quarantine office of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the quarantine station of the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
Double sampling of the same cargo is inefficient and sampling should be conducted only once.
4. Corresponding Policy of the Ministries concerned:
Ministry of Health and Welfare
Monitoring tests conducted by quarantine stations are done from the viewpoint of food sanitation. Since April 1996, however, food sanitation inspections and animal quarantine/plant quarantine are carried out simultaneously, if the importer requests this and the departments carrying out the respective inspections, after studying the request, determine that this is possible. In such cases, measures are taken to carry out the inspections simultaneously, to make cargo unpacking operations more efficient.
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
Based on the Animal Infectious Diseases Control Law, animal quarantine offices inspect animals and livestock products in order to prevent infectious diseases from entering the country.
Under the said Law, importers of animals or of livestock products are required to promptly make a declaration to an animal quarantine office and undergo inspection by animal quarantine officers.
Having received a declaration by importers, animal quarantine officers check the paperwork and inspect the actual products for which a declaration was made; if abnormalities are detected, detailed inspection is conducted.
This testing is carried out for all shipments declared; no sampling inspections are done.
Inspection for the E. coli O-157 done by officials at the point of entry was carried out with the cooperation of importers on a temporary basis as a measure to prevent food poisoning and is not currently being done.
5. Remarks
The complainant accepted this policy.