The US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has announced, effective March 18th, it has instituted additional pathogen testing of all shipments of raw beef and ready-to-eat products from Brazil, as well as 100 percent reinspection of those products at U.S. ports of entry. Prompted by recent investigations of Brazil’s meat industry, these measures will remain in place indefinitely.
It was just recently the U.S. and Brazil resumed bilateral trade in fresh beef for the first time in more than a decade. This came after the countries resolved concerns about bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE…mad cow disease). As part of that process FSIS determined Brazil’s food safety system governing meat products remained equivalent to that of the United States.
However, following reports that Brazilian meat producers bribed health inspectors to overlook the sale of spoiled meat, several countries have banned imports of Brazilian meat and at least two U.S. senators have asked the USDA to do the same pending a fuller investigation. In subsequent action, S. 688, introduced March 21st by Senator Tester, D-Montana would ban imports of beef and poultry from Brazil for 120 days to give the USDA time to comprehensively investigate recently identified food safety threats. Livingston will continue to monitor this situation.
If you have any questions regarding the information in this bulletin, please contact either your Livingston account manager, or our regulatory affairs group at usregaffairs@livingstonintl.com