November 6, 2008

Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono plans to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on meat with Brazil on November 17, 2008, an animal husbandry practitioner disclosed.

The practitioner also revealed that the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) will soon leave for Brazil to examine meat standards.

The MUI had received a request to audit the meat quality, according to Muhammad Nadratuzzaman Hosen, director of the Food and Drug Examiner and Supervisory Agency (LPPOM) at the MUI.

Hosen said there are no health-related problems with canned meat products as they are processed, but the MUI would still visit slaughterhouses to inspect how animals were slaughtered and processed.

The next visit would audit canned products, though the MUI would not audit fresh meat products before the government confirmed Indonesia would import them, said Hosen.

This news followed the publication of a study that had misgivings of Indonesia's ability to detect and prevent potential mouth and nail (PMK) diseases in cattle.

So far, the Department of Agriculture had yet to revise the regulations on meat imports from mouth-and-nail disease infected countries from country-based to zone-based.

The OIE said Brazil is yet to be free from the disease, though the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina is already free from the disease.