EU inspectors have told the European Parliament's agriculture committee that a recent inspection mission to Brazil has renewed concerns that the quality of Brazilian beef is still well below EU standards.

The EU should now ban any further imports of Brazilian beef until they meet with the standards we would expect of our own farmers.

Brazil exports around 270,000 tons of bovine meat to the EU - making it the largest exporter of bovine meat to Europe.

A recent report from the European Union's Food and Veterinary office (FVO) reveals a catalogue of concerns over the quality, safety and traceability of Brazilian products.

Among the concerns were: ear tagging of cattle only takes place between 30 and 90 days before the animal is slaughtered so there virtually no traceability in a country that has foot-and- mouth.

Drugs that are banned from EU meat are either used or not even tested for in Brazilian products.

This is not a new issue: reports since 2003 have consistently shown similar concerns, which Brazilian farmers have not addressed.

Conservative MEPs contacted EU health and consumer protection Commissioner Kyprianou earlier this year, asking him to consider a ban and in response, the Commissioner visited Brazil last month to see for himself.

But despite continued overtures from the European Commission, not enough action is being taken.

Either we are over-regulating our farmers or the EU is allowing Brazil to under-regulate theirs.

Source: icWales.co.uk