With the safety of Brazilian beef in question in a meat-inspection scandal, the USDA said it will re-inspect and test fall shipments of beef from the South American country for pathogens. The USDA said none of the 21 facilities targeted by Brazilian police have shipped meat to the United States.
USDA said its meat inspection agency “immediately instituted additional pathogen testing of all shipments of raw beef and ready-to-eat products from Brazil upon hearing reports of the Brazilian investigation … The agency will indefinitely maintain its 100 percent re-inspection and pathogen testing of all lots.” If food-safety concerns are discovered, USDA said it would “take immediate action to refuse entry of product into the United States.”
Brazil ships mostly cooked or canned beef to U.S. ports. Since last October, imports of “fresh” beef also are allowed. “The fresh/frozen volumes are small,” said the U.S. Meat Export Federation. In January, they totaled 287 tons or 63,300 pounds. USDA forecasts beef imports of 2.7 million pounds this year.
At the same time that USDA announced its decision last August on imports of Brazilian beef, Brazil said it would re-open its market to imports of U.S. beef. Brazil shut off imports after the discovery in 2003 of the first U.S. case of mad cow disease. The United States barred imports of chilled or frozen beef from Brazil as a safeguard against foot-and-mouth disease.
After a two-year investigation, Brazilian police accused more than 100 people, mostly health inspectors, of taking bribes to allow sale of spoiled beef, falsifying export records or failing to inspect packing plants, said Reuters. “Among the companies targeted were the world’s largest meat producer, JBS, and BRF,” the world’s largest poultry exporter. The companies deny any wrongdoing.