SAN ANTONIO – U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Shafer said Tuesday that U.S. beef is safe as massive protests continued in South Korea over a deal to allow more beef to be exported to the Asian nation.

"Every single carcass that's processed is inspected by a (U.S. Department of Agriculture) inspector," Schafer told reporters, including the Associated Press. "That beef is stamped A-OK and we want to certainly assure our consumers here in the United States, as well as our consumers outside of the U.S. in foreign countries, that we provide a good, clean, safe, abundant food supply here."

On Tuesday, about 80,000 protesters demonstrated in Seoul against the planned resumption of U.S. beef imports, driven by fears of mad cow disease. The entire Cabinet offered to resign in the uproar over the policy, the news service reported.

The protests have been occurring since South Korea and the United States reached a deal in April to allow all U.S. beef products to be imported, regardless of the age of the cattle. The deal was scheduled to go into effect last week.