U.S. willing to give food to poor nations
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- The United States is willing to distribute to poor countries 363,000 foreign packaged meals that could not be donated to Katrina victims because of concerns about mad cow disease.
The ready-to-eat meals, sent mostly by Britain, should never have reached U.S. shores because of a long-standing ban on beef imports from Britain and several other European countries.
The ban was overlooked in the chaotic aftermath of the Gulf Coast storm.
State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said the Agriculture Department stepped in on Sept. 6 to block distribution of the packages - but not before 130,000 meals were parceled out to victims.
About 330,000 packages from Britain were impounded along with an additional 33,000 from Germany, Russia, Spain and France, Ereli said.
The food has been languishing on shelves at an Arkansas warehouse for more than a month. Ereli said U. S. ambassadors in a number of countries have passed the word that the packages are available.
"We want to find needy populations and get them there as soon as possible," Ereli said. He was unable to say when the U.S. offer was sent out. The expiration date on some of the packages is early 2006.
The Agriculture Department said it is not suggesting that the meals are unsafe but that they do not meet importation standards.
The prohibition was put in place in 1997 after the degenerative disease that affects the central nervous system was found in British cattle
