After the turbulence of last week, Brazil has thus far limited the fallout from Operation Weak Flesh. Two weeks ago, 1,000 police raided 30 companies in Brazil, including JBS, with accusations of rotten and dangerous meat having been sold and public officials bribed.

Following that, a plethora of countries imposed restrictions on importing meat from Brazil.

Since then China, Egypt and Chile have adopted the EU position of placing import restrictions only on the companies involved in the investigation.

Meanwhile, EU Health Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis, has been in Brazil on a scheduled visit and held talks with Brazil’s agriculture minister on Monday.

This follows on from a meeting of chief veterinary officers from member states in Brussels at the end of last week when they discussed the intensified inspection of Brazilian meat when it arrived in member states.

A further response by the EU is to undertake a series of audits in Brazil at premises approved to export to the EU before the middle of May.

This means that for now it is business as usual, outside of the 21 companies under investigation, which remain suspended.

Should the additional checks on product arriving since the story broke in Brussels on St Patrick’s Day prove satisfactory, the issue will have been ringfenced.