August 3, 2010

 

US seeks drug-free beef exports from Brazil

 

 

Brazil must prove that it can keep beef free of a de-worming drug commonly given to cattle if the country wants to resume selling processed beef to the US, according to USDA officials.

 

Very high levels of the cattle drug Ivermectin were first discovered in May by USDA port inspectors in processed beef products like tins of Libby's Corned Beef that had been manufactured in Brazil. That discovery prompted USDA inspectors to test more Brazilian product and, in June, they announced finding more of the drug in Hormel Corned beef and other products.

 

Along with both Invermectin discoveries, the USDA also announced recalls of the imported products on the US market. The first recall was for 87,000 pounds and the second for 61,000 pounds. The recall was conducted by the importing company Samco Inc., a subsidiary of Brazil's JBS SA, the world's largest beef producer.

 

By the time the second USDA discovery and recall were announced, Brazil had already voluntarily halted all processed beef exports to the US

 

USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service administrator Al Almanza noted that if Brazil had not voluntarily shut off exports, the USDA would have had to shut down trade from its end.

 

All the Ivermectin-contaminated beef recalled in the US had come from one Brazilian facility, but data provided from Brazil to the US showed the drug was discovered an unacceptable levels in several plants that shipped product to the US, Almanza said.

 

There is a US tolerance level of 10 parts per billion for Ivermectin, a USDA spokesman said, but the contamination found in some of the Brazilian imports was more than 65 times that level-as high as 651 parts per billion.

 

Brazil is now anxious to have its exporters resume shipping processed beef to the US, its agriculture minister said in a June 16 press conference.

 

Trade could resume in about a month, but USDA officials said there is a process that needs to first be followed before that can happen. Brazil has not yet filed the paperwork showing how it will prevent future contamination, Almanza said.

 

Brazil, which is still banned from exporting unprocessed beef due to the country's problems with foot and mouth disease, or FMD-a highly contagious cattle disease that does not threaten humans has developed a large market in the US for pre-cooked products that cannot spread FMD.

 

The US imported about 28.5 million pounds of processed beef from Brazil in the four months this year before the country stopped shipping in May, according to the USDA.