Japan stops Kansas meat plant import

Japan ordered imports halted from a major meat plant in Kansas last Friday after a beef shipment arrived without proper papers, the third American meatpacker that''s had some exports to Japan stopped for technical violations, the Associated Press reports. Four boxes of frozen beef tongue in a shipment of 250 boxes, totaling about 2 tons, which arrived in Kobe, central Japan, from Cargill Meat Solutions in Dodge City, Kansas, didn''t have the required papers from the U.S. government, the agriculture ministry said in a statement. The U.S. Department of Agriculture told the ministry the shipment was destined for somewhere other than Japan, the statement said. U.S. authorities were investigating why it ended up in Japan.