The Brazilian beef danger keeps looming U.S. Imports

The Brazilian beef danger on U.S. imports is still a heated debate since Q1 of 2017.

On top of that, some groups are urging for a return of all meat currently labeled country-of-origin. This corruption scandal involving the meat packer and health inspection which slammed Brazilian beef danger in processing and export sector has brought all sorts of bans for beef and poultry from many import nations.

The investigation from Brazil’s federal police has been two years meticulously after the huge Brazil beef dangers in all beef and poultry packing sector. Authorities have found a great amount of corruption, which lead to dangerous products allegedly being processed, sold and in some cases shipped out of the country to worldwide markets. Some lawmakers seemly argue difference even though U.S. health and agriculture officials have said there is no Brazilian beef danger from mean being shipped into the country.

Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) introduced this new regulation, joined by Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, from the North Dakota Democratic-Nonpartisan League party and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.)

As a third-generation farmer, Tester was among those heavily criticizing the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s decision some years ago . Back then, the office allowed already considered Brazilian beef danger to be imported into American markets in the first place, because the country continues to have outbreaks of foot and mouth disease, depending of the regions. In 2015 he was successful blocking of Brazilian beef danger in all imports from regions of Brazil,  where foot-and-mouth disease is endemic.

Brazilian beef danger in quality would be banned from entering U.S. markets for 120 days with his bill, giving enough time for the USDA and its Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) to investigate potential threats and figure out which real Brazilian beef danger  can put U.S. consumers at risk. All this while Brazil and several of its giant packing companies move on from the investigation.

Brazil has made a strategic move to become one of the top players in the global meat industry and has almost 5,000 meat processing plants along with 2,300 health inspectors working on meat inspection. The meat export business in Brazil could be worth $14 billion.

“Decisive actions must be taken if we want to ensure families everywhere in U.S. are exposed to the Brazilian beef danger from its processors,” Tester pointed out while introducing the bill. “No harmful food should come into our markets and endanger our families.”

Heitkamp agreed. “If we allow the Brazilian beef danger into the country, it’d jeopardize consumers and the U.S reputation as beef producers whose meat is sold next to imported meat, even so not labeled as mandatory country-of-origin,” explained Sen. Heitkamp in his letter directed to President Donald Trump.

Sonny Perdue, the newcomer as Agriculture Secretary just warned Senators that U.S. agriculture could face Brazilian trade retaliation if Brazilian beef imports is halted beef.

U.S. Agriculture Department officials confirmed no Brazilian beef danger from their plants which are being investigated in Brazil has entered  U.S. markets, yet.

Pathogen testing has stepped up by health officials in the United States of all Brazilian beef danger imports. The USDA and FSIS announced a plan to increase the inspection of a Brazilian beef danger in U.S. imports. Furthermore, they will inspect 100 percent of Brazilian product at entry ports.

Brazilian beef danger would be labeled as such certain federal officials said. If sold to consumers in the original container, it’s considered dangerous,  but not if it has been repackaged or reprocessed – which is most likely to happen. A large group of cattle producers express it is not good enough. They are urging members of their Congressional parties support Tester’s measure and are encouraging to go back to country-of-origin (COOL) labeling for meat.

Among those is R-CALF USA, a Montana-based cattle group that has long been a backer of COOL. In a public We the People petition launched on April 13, R-CALF USA seeks 100,000 signatures during the next 30 days to call on the Trump Administration to ban imports of Brazilian beef until all beef sold in U.S. supermarkets is labeled with its country of origin.

The petition highlights several nations importing beef who took precautions of placing bans on a Brazilian beef danger right after authorities there held up beef plants as their investigation became worldwide news. Packers of a Brazilian beef danger argued having tried covering up meat gone bad with chemicals and illegal substances to their sausages. What’s worse, they ended up selling that product to schools and to the public as well as export markets. Extra testing for pathogens began by health officials in some countries since concern over Brazilian beef danger grew. Some salmonella-positive samples returned from the testing.

However, as one of the of the world’s largest beef consumer, the U.S. did not take necessary precautions of banning the Brazilian beef danger in imports, which expressed R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard angry.

He went on explaining that when Congress repealed COOL, origin labels on beef from the United States, Mexico and Canada weren’t  just eliminated. By repealing that, it also eliminated the requirement which imported beef products must be labeled using retail sale — meaning ending up all the way to the actual consumer purchasing beef.

“As a result, any given day, you put two unlabeled packages of T-bone steaks together, one Brazilian and one U.S., both can be offered bearing an official U.S. inspection sticker. Every consumer won’t have the slightest clue as to which of both steaks was produced by a rancher in America,” Bullard said.

The request from his groups calls for a ban on what they insistently call Brazilian beef danger in imports until American consumers can begin differentiating between Brazilian and American beef, with a country-of-origin label.

With their petition request the group states, “As ranchers, we´re quite American. Needless to say, we are going out of business at such a fast pace, while producing the safest, best beef in the world. More than a couple hundred thousand of us have lost our family ranches starting from 1990 because global ‘fat cat’ meat packers lobbying Congress to stop our American beef from being labeled.”