MIXED results continue in EU audits of Brazil’s production of beef for export to the EU.

TRACEABILITY of beef and beef products has improved significantly since 2002, said officials from the EU’s Food and Veterinary Office (FVO) in last week’s report of their inspection in Ireland last September.

THE EU’s public service watchdog has criticised the European Commission over its delay in banning beef imports into the EU from Brazil, despite having evidence that it posed a risk.

RECOMMENDATIONS have been made by the EU’s Food and Veterinary Office to authorities in Brazil to address shortcomings identified last October during assessment of the possibility of live cattle exports to the EU from the country’s southern state of Santa Catarina.

A BILATERAL European Union trade deal with Brazil and other South American countries would decimate the livelihoods of 80,000 Irish livestock farmers and inflict losses of €350 million on the beef sector, it was claimed at a protest in Dublin yesterday.

THE Irish Farmers Association (IFA) has claimed that a new European Union report is a damning indictment of Brazilian beef auditing and traceability.

BRAZIL has submitted to Brussels a list of fewer than 200 holdings it says are eligible for exporting beef to the EU.

THE EU operates one rule for suppliers of beef from Ireland for the EU market, and a different set of standards for beef imported from Brazil.

IFA could have a long wait for the EU’s Food and Veterinary Office report on last March’s inspection of Brazil’s beef exports to the EU.

MUCH progress has been made in Brazil’s control of residues and contaminants in animal products, said the EU’s Food and Veterinary Office in last week’s report of a 10-day inspection mission in Brazil at the start of March.

EUROPEAN farmers this week united behind IFA’s efforts to have Brazilian beef imports banned in the EU.

As beef producers concern over the impact of imports from Brazil intensifies, it has been confirmed that a formal; complaint has been lodged with the EU and the Council of the European Union Ombudsman, Nikiforous Diarmandouros alleging "mal-administration for their failure to ban Brazilian beef imports".

A GREAT effort has been made by Brazilian authorities to control foot and mouth, and the absence of suspected new cases since November may indicate the disease has been controlled, according to the EU’s Food and Veterinary Office.

TWO follow-up inspections early next year by the EU’s Food and Veterinary Office (FVO) will monitor food export standards in Brazil.

AN TAISCE has taken action in Europe in an attempt to get the Government to reclassify BSE material as infectious and hazardous waste.

The Department of Agriculture and Food today rejected as entirely without foundation suggestions from a representative of An Taisce that environmental laws were breached during disposal of BSE-positive carcasses.

A MONASTIC-STYLE modern building in the heart of the Irish countryside is playing a crucial role in protecting the health of Europe's 390 million food consumers.

A delegation of MEP's is expressing concern for the future of the European Food and Veterinary office at Grange in Co Meath.