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Three teams of European health inspectors are to conduct audits in the coming weeks to evaluate Brazil’s export control systems for export to the EU.
It comes following last month’s revelation that 1,000 police raided 30 companies in Brazil, including JBS, with accusations of rotten and dangerous meat having been sold and public officials bribed.
Officials from the EU’s Commission for Health and Food Safety (DG Santé) have confirmed that the inspections will be with specific regard for the measures taken following the outcome of the police investigation.
Among the matters under investigation is the processing of rotten meat and export of product with traces of salmonella. Police claim that the practices have been going on for a period of years.
DG Santé officials are putting the finishing touches to logistical and organisational details ahead of the audits.
Processing plants
EU experts are expected to visit beef processing plants, as well as slaughter facilities for poultry and horsemeat in the Brazilian states that were implicated in the corruption inquiry.
It is understood that the inspectors are also to visit sites which are authorized to export meat to the EU in other Brazilian states – which are not being investigated by Brazilian police.
The inspectors are to hold a briefing with the Brazilian competent authorities at the beginning of the mission and a debriefing session on the last day.
Ban
Following the scandal, the European Commission announced that companies implicated in the unfolding Brazilian meat fraud investigation have been suspended from shipping to the EU.
Four factories among the 21 under formal investigation were exporting to the EU and their licences are the ones that were suspended.
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