Brussels, 29/01/2004 (Agence Europe) - The Standing Committee of the Food Chain and Animal Health agreed on Wednesday to a proposal to scale down checks by Member States on imports of chickens and poultry meat from Brazil. Since the discovery at the end of September 2002 of nitrofuran (antibiotics) in Brazilian poultry meat, the EU has systematically checked all batches of chickens, poultry meat and poultry meat products from Brazil. From now on, the checks will only be carried out on 20% of imports, thanks to an action plan set up by the Brazilian authorities, which was shown to be effective in an inquiry by the EU's Food and Veterinary Office (FVO). No notification of nitrofuran in poultry meat or poultry meat products has been reported since August 2003.