Brazil will by audited in relation to food safety standards either later in 2019 or in early 2020, a spokesperson for the European Commission on Food Safety has told the Irish Farmers Journal.

The Commission for Food Safety has also put a freeze on any new factories from Mercosur countries receiving approval to export to the EU until they meet the EU’s food safety standards, European Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan said.

Some 51 Brazilian beef factories and 27 poultry factories are approved to export to the EU, with a further 84 minced meat and meat factories also approved.

None of the 20 Brazilian factories that were suspended from exporting to the EU last year under Operation Weak Flesh have been re-authorised to export.

Rejected

Since 2017 up until this week, four consignments of Brazilian poultry were rejected by Irish authorities as a result of non-compliant salmonella sampling results, a Department of Agriculture spokesperson said.

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