September 14, 2007

EU to investigate Brazilian meat procedures

A mission team from the European Union will be sent to Brazil in October to inspect the country's methods on animal health, traceability and safety to verify earlier accusations on Brazilian meat being poorly handled.

The team will also make an audit whether recommendations made by previous missions have been made satisfactorily.

The inspection, however, worried Brazilian producers, presuming the team will try to find more problems in its production after members of the EU parliament recommended to ban Brazilian meat earlier this month. The proposal was a result of allegations made by the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) in May which noted Brazil's unsafe practice for Brazilian meat processing. The complaints were presented to the Agriculture Committee of the EU Parliament in July.

The European Commission will investigate and act on the issue if the proposal receives support from a majority of members.

Brazil has been recurrently experiencing foot-and-mouth-disease in its cattle and swine farms.

The EU Consumer Protection Commission has earlier questioned the accuracy of the IFA's report as it involved farms in states which are not currently allowed to export to the EU. Brazil is not obliged to conform to Europe's regulations given the different cattle raising conditions. Since 2006, the EU has sent six technical missions to Brazil, all of which has approved Brazilian meat with recommendations for improved controls.

At the same time, Brazil is currently being inspected by a delegation of 20 representatives from the Russian Veterinary Service to evaluate the whole production chain, after 10 beef processing plants were banned in May due to veterinary certification issues.