Shanghai Customs officers seized two batches of illegal imported beef from Japan last week, officials said yesterday.

The Shanghai Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau confiscated 960 kilograms of beef - valued at six million Japanese yen (US$54,149) - which had traveled from Osaka and Tokyo on November 3.

When inspecting luggage from flight JL629 from Osaka to Shanghai, bureau officials found seven luggage cases which were heavy and cold to touch.

When five Japanese and one Chinese tourist were about to pass customs with the cases, X-ray inspection showed they were filled with frozen beef, totalling 800 kilograms.

About 160 kilograms of illegal beef was also found in the luggage from flight MU524 from Tokyo, the bureau said.

On November 8, the bureau's airport branch received a tip that someone was trying to import beef from Japan - and that it would be hidden in boxes labelled "mechanical parts".

Officials rushed to Pudong International Airport.

Twenty-six boxes of Japanese beef weighing 530 kilograms, and three boxes of tuna weighing 50 kilograms, were found in the goods valued at about 700,000 yuan.

The goods' owner has been detained and all illegal products have been destroyed, the bureau said.

China has banned beef import from Japan as mad cow disease has spread through the country.

(Source: www.shanghai.gov.cn )