Since the scandal broke of Brazilian tainted meat possibly having been exported to the European market, there have been calls for the European Commission to shed all possible light on the situation to reassure European consumers, while the Commission is still waiting for the member states to inform it of the level of their import checks (see EUROPE 11749).
While, hitherto, no cases of suspicious meat have been flagged up in the EU, the Commission once again, on Wednesday 22 March, gave assurances that it was following the situation very closely, along with the member states.
“Next Friday the Commission will hold a meeting of Chief Veterinary Officers (CVOs) from the Member States to discuss the state of play of the latest developments and to hear from them on the increased level of controls put in place”, a high-ranking official told EUROPE.
Andriukaitis to visit Brazil next week. European Health and Food Safety Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis, who will travel to Brazil on Monday 27 March, will discuss the situation with the Brazilian agriculture minister. This visit had already been planned, said Commission spokesperson Enrico Brivio.
“According to the Brazilian authorities, 21 establishments are implicated in the inquiry, and 4 out of these 21 were eligible to export to the EU. These 4 establishments have now been suspended from exports to the EU”, he added. This was demanded by the Commission of the Brazilian authorities as soon the traffic in meat unfit for human consumption came to light.
On Tuesday 21 March, French Agriculture and Agri-food Minister Stéphane Le Foll said in a press release that “France will formally ask the European Commission to take all necessary steps to ensure the protection of consumers”.
In Parliament, MEP James Nicholson (ECR, UK) announced the same day that he had “asked the Commission to provide information as to how much beef has been imported from Brazil into each EU member state to be able to assess the risk posed to consumers across Europe”. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)