European Health and Food Safety Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis briefed the Agriculture Council meeting in Luxembourg on Monday 12 June on the state of play in the scandal over tainted beef from Brazil (see EUROPE 11762).
Confidence has not yet returned between the EU and Brazil after the tainted Brazilian meat scandal. The Brazilian authorities are even “in denial”, Andriukaitis went as far as to tell EU ministers.
After the immediate tightening of monitoring at the EU’s borders and an on-site audit at the start of May (see EUROPE 11758), the commissioner said he had asked Brasilia: - to put in place full microbiological checks before exporting poultry meat and meat-based products and preparations to the European market; - to remove all horse abattoirs from the list of establishments approved for sales to the EU; - not to request the inclusion of new establishments on this list.
The Commission stressed that the May audit conducted by EU vets had confirmed shortcomings in the Brazilian meat checks. A fresh EU audit is expected to be carried out in Brazil in October of November of this year to assess progress made in official checks. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)