UK farming leaders demand immediate ban on Brazilian meat over health risk
Farming leaders today (Friday, August 28) issued a unified call to the UK government to urgently ban Brazilian meat imports from next week.
The Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU), the National Farmers’ Union (NFU), NFU Scotland and NFU Cymru want the UK government to "align" with the EU decision to ban Brazilian beef and poultry exports from September 3.
In May, it was confirmed that Brazil would no longer be allowed to export a range of animal products to the EU from next week.
The move came after member states voted to exclude Brazil from an updated list of third countries authorised to export food-producing animals and animal products to the EU.
Farming leaders in the UK have warned Angela Eagle, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, that a failure to act on Brazilian meat "could put public health, farm businesses and public confidence in UK food at risk".
Brazilian meat
In a letter to the Secretary of State the leaders of the NFU, UFU, NFU Scotland and NFU Cymru pointed to EU findings that highlighted Brazil’s "inability to demonstrate compliance with EU rules on antimicrobial resistance (AMR)".
They also underlined that the use of antibiotics for growth promotion has been banned in the UK and EU since 2006.
In the letter, the farming unions state that "ensuring the health and safety of the nation" is a core responsibility of government.
They have also warned that a failure by the UK government to act would leave public health exposed to AMR and threaten public confidence in the beef and poultry sectors.
The organisations believe that there is also a significant risk of consumers not being aware of what they are eating - as most Brazilian meat goes into the UK’s food service sector which does not require country of origin labelling.
The farming union presidents said collectively: "Failure to act will not only expose the nation to a public health risk, but damage consumer confidence in beef and poultry as a whole.
"Combined with the additional complications it would cause trading with our farming colleagues in Northern Ireland and the very real threat of Brazilian meat being diverted onto the Great Britain market, it would only pile further pressure on producers here at home.
“The absence of any government response is unacceptable, particularly when there is a direct risk to public health and credible reports of significant disruption across the GB supply chain," they stated.
