Most of a $5.3 million British shipment of food for Hurricane Katrina victims still sits unopened in an Arkansas warehouse, a report says.
The nearly 400,000 packaged meals, rations routinely eaten by British soldiers, were held up because of U.S. government fears about mad cow disease and a long-standing ban on British beef.
Now, with some of the food set to expire in early 2006 and U.S. taxpayers spending $16,000 a month to store the meals, the State Department is quietly looking for a needy country to take them, The Washington Post said Friday.
At least six federal agencies or departments had a hand in the food quandary but there remains a disagreement over who is responsible for it.
"There was a specific request for emergency ration packs, and we responded to that," a puzzled spokesman for the British Embassy said. "We had no reason to believe there would be a problem."
© Copyright 2005 by United Press International
