Brazil meat fraud shows skewed trade relations

The fact that the Brazilian authorities mistrust the food safety of the European meat industry is surprising. 'Completely in light of the current meat fraud scandal', said CDA MEP Annie Schreijer-Pierik. 

"While the Brazilians annually export an amount of 12 billion euros of meat to Europe, our meat may not be exported to Brazil," said Schreijer-Pierik, Tuesday evening 4 April, in the European Parliament.

Controversial production methods
While European food safety standards are among the best in the world, Brazilian meat producers use controversial production methods† 'The fraudulent slaughterhouses mainly use banned chemical preservatives. In addition, the use of chlorine for the disinfection of meat is quite normal in those kinds of countries. Such methods are absolutely not allowed in Europe', says Schreijer-Pierik. These cheap resources mean that the competitive position of European farmers is severely disadvantaged.

Cheating is allowed
Moreover, according to the CDA MEP, it is remarkable and inadmissible that inspectors from the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture have allowed the tampering with meat. Schreijer-Pierik: 'A corruption scandal of this level is unprecedented and poses great dangers to global public health.' The Brazilians supply meat to more than 150 countries worldwide. 

Trust won't be restored soon
Schreijer-Pierik expects that it will take a long time before confidence in the Brazilian meat sector is fully restored. According to the CDA politician, a lot will have to change for that.

There must also be talk of mutual trust. 'It cannot be that our high food safety standards are questioned by a country that does not have its own affairs in order. That is the world upside down', says Schreijer-Pierik.

Kimberly Baker

Kimberly Bakker is an all-round editor at Boerenbusiness. She also has an eye for the social media channels of Boerenbusiness.

k.baker @boerenbusiness. Nl

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