China, the world’s top meat market, is loosening longstanding restrictions on beef imports from major suppliers to feed the appetite of the country’s growing middle class for steaks and ribs. Over the past few decades, Beijing banned imports of beef from European countries and the United States during outbreaks of mad cow disease. Worries about the disease are subsiding following more stringent inspections on foreign arrivals, while Chinese people are seeking healthier sources of protein and adopting more Western eating habits. Reuters talks Chinese imports of U.S. beef. Read more…