Following the reports on the investigation process determined by the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply, which covers a set of 21 meat production establishments implicated in fraud (3 of which were placed under special inspection regime) and four of them were allowed to export to the European Union. This fraud, allegedly, consists on the payment to federal inspectors to approve products without verification. 

In total, during the year 2016, 853,000 loads of animal products from Brazil were exported, of which 184 were "not satisfactory" (0.02%) detected by the authorities of importing countries. Most of the causes of "not satisfactory" were not of a sanitary nature, but from questions of labelling and certification. 

In the case of Portugal, in 2016, 363 loads of animal products from the Brazil were received and all of them were submitted to identity and documentary checks at Border Inspection Points. Until today, in Portugal, there was no report about non-conformity detected related to this issue.

In the European Union, any import control that results in "not satisfactory" results in a notification in the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) which automatically requires reinforcement of control measures at European Border Inspection Points. When a "not satisfactory" load is detected, the products shall not be allowed to enter the European market and shall be immediately destroyed or re-dispatched to the origin if this is the intention expressed by the exporter and when doesn’t exist an health risk.

Source: DGAV and ASAE