One in every 300 beef shipments to reach Ireland’s borders from outside the EU since 2022 were turned away on inspection, new figures from Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon show.

These border control post (BCP) inspections check imported beef’s compliance with EU food safety and meat identification requirements.

“All consignments of beef presenting at border control posts for entry into the EU must be accompanied by detailed identification and traceability documents – including common health entry document and veterinary certification,” Minister Heydon said in response to a question put by Sinn Féin TD Conor McGuinness.

“There have been 9,590 consignments of beef imported into the EU through Irish BCPs since 1 January 2022, of which 33 were non-compliant and were rejected from entering the EU.”

Minister Heydon said these checks entail “documentary inspections, identity inspections and, where required, physical inspections and sampling”.

Risk assessments

He stated that the controls are governed by EU legislation and are carried out according to risk assessments.

Any beef supplies presented at control posts from countries of origin outside the EU are refused entry if their origin country, or the establishment they came from, are not approved to export to the EU.

Brazil made headlines earlier this year after member states voted to provisionally remove the country from the list of EU meat import-eligible nations.

The removal came after a European Commission audit uncovered significant non-compliances with Brazilian authorities’ adherence to EU veterinary medicine rules in place to safeguard human and animal safety.

It followed the provisional entry into force of the EU-Mercosur free trade agreement seen by Mercosur member Brazil as a boost for its meat sector.

However, following an EU inspection, a recall notice was issued for supplies of Brazilian hormone beef imported into the EU in late 2025 that spanned several member states. The Food Safety Authority of Ireland did not issue a recall as it believed all tainted supplies to land in Ireland had already been consumed.

The looming 3 September 2026 shut-out date for Brazilian meat products in EU markets has prompted renewed calls from Britain’s National Farmers’ Union (NFU) to call for a similar UK-wide precautionary ban.

UK market

“There is a real risk that Brazilian beef and poultry – originally destined for the EU – could be diverted to the UK market, distorting trade and putting additional pressure on domestic producers,” NFU president Tom Bradshaw warned last week.

“Unless there is full confidence that Brazilian meat has been produced responsibly, the government should take the same precautionary approach as the EU and ban the import of Brazilian products.

"It should also increase the frequency of testing for products entering the UK from high- and medium-risk countries such as Brazil."

Brazil is the EU’s largest outside source of chicken, representing 211,000t of imports in 2025 and is the supplier of 92,363t of EU beef.