30 August 2007

2 minute read

Europe

John Bryan said the latest FVO report on the control of residues and veterinary medicine in Brazil involves a litany of failures by the Brazilian authorities to meet EU standards, which can no longer be tolerated to the EU Commission. John Bryan said “if European consumers were aware of the full extent of the failure of Brazilian beef to meet EU standards on residue testing, veterinary medicines control and associated food safety issues, they would be horrified and demand full accountability from Commissioner Kyprianou and the EU Commission”.

John Bryan accused the EU of fudging the real extent of the problems and the failures in Brazil to meet EU standards in the summary of the FVO report. He said the real facts, which are contained in the body of the report, are that the Brazilians failed on all 3 counts of residue testing, laboratories and veterinary medicine controls.

John Bryan said he was appalled at the extent of double standards accepted by the EU Commission. He said, “I am horrified to see that beef which fails to meet proper standards is accepted by the EU from Brazil, whereas it would automatically be skipped in Ireland by the Vets and controls in our Meat Plants”.

The IFA livestock leader said the EU Commission cannot credibly assure consumers on beef standards when the FVO office is reporting that Brazil is not testing for thyreostats in cattle and there are gaps in key areas such as residue testing for chemical like organophosphates for ectoparasite treatments, which are in widespread use Brazil.

Mr. Bryan said the FVO go on to report that all 4 Government laboratories are not accredited to ISO 17025 standard as required by the EU and the testing methods are not fit for the purpose intended.

On the lack of controls on Veterinary medicine use in Brazil, John Bryan said the FVO has reported that the situation on authorization, distribution and control has not changed since 2005 when they reported that “the system is not adequate and cannot be judged to offer guarantees equivalent to those provided for in EU legislation”. The FVO go on to highlight a litany of problems regarding the lack of any controls on the use of beta-agonist such as ractopamine and clenbuterol and the use of antibiotics as feed additives.

In view of the failure on traceability and movement controls in Brazil, John Bryan said the EU Commission does not know the origin of cattle in Brazil. In addition the EU does not know what veterinary and drug treatments have been administrated to animals in Brazil. He said the EU cannot creditably claim that Brazilian beef is safe to the standard EU consumers expect.

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