August 30, 2010

Brazil to provide US with beef test results

The Brazilian government will present to the US in up to three weeks the results of more than 450 tests being made in local beef to identify unusually high levels of a vermifuge known as Ivermectina, according to the Brazilian Beef Exporters Association (Abiec).

Beef exports to the US have been suspended since May, when higher-than-acceptable residues of vermifuge were found in beef produced by JBS SA, the world's largest meat processor.

A first round of 152 samples showed with a certainty of 99% that vermifuge levels in Brazilian beef are below the 2% ceiling admitted by the US, said Abiec President Otávio Cançado.

An additional 78 samples have already been analysed, with results still unknown, and another 230 tests will be performed, totalling 460 tests.

"We'll show to the US, in a scientific way, that there has been no violation," Cançado said.

The pace at which the tests have been made is record, he added, noting that a process like this usually takes two to three years to be completed.

The Abiec executive said that the JBS case is isolated and that the situation is under control. "With the tests we want to prove the problem is not systemic," he added.