Brazil food export standards much improved
Pesticide residues and animal and public health will be checked.
Great efforts have been made to correct deficiencies detected previously by the FVO, said Robert Madelin, director general, Office of the Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, European Commission, when he addressed the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture and Food.
He admitted there was “a moment of crisis” when the FVO found in 2005 that a plan of action to correct pesticide residues detected in 2003 had not been carried out. But 16 meat plants were visited last July and the general and specific hygiene standards, traceability systems, and veterinary controls and supervision were acceptable in all.
Mr Madelin said slaughterhouses which sell to Europe have more high-tech traceability systems than those in Europe. Each slaughterhouse for Europe has online control back up the line for 90 days to check a beast coming in for slaughter has been traced for the previous 90 days in a disease-free region in conformity with EU requirements.
Due to foot and mouth, the EU has banned large regions of Brazil from exporting beef, which account for 60% of the country’s beef production capacity. FVO missions have not found any evidence of use of growth promoting hormones in cattle in Brazil. “We have evidence of hormones for veterinary medicinal purposes being used in areas where they would also be used legally in this country and in the EU, but they are not being found in feed lots and in quantities which would lead to use for growth promoting purposes”, he told Oireachtas members.
“My veterinary inspectors say if such hormones are used, they cannot be hidden. One will always find a discarded box or container somewhere and we did not find evidence.”
“We can visit within a region with less than 24 hours’ notice any number of feed lots, and we have done that. We have made surprise inspections and we have not find anything there either,” said Mr Madelin.
