The Philippines will soon subject all meat and meat products imported from Brazil to laboratory tests to ensure that these are safe for consumption, the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) said on Monday.
While Manila has not suspended meat imports from Brazil, the BAI said it wanted to step up the inspection of shipments of all meat products from the world’s largest exporter of red meat and chicken.
“On [the BAI’s part], all meat and meat-product imports coming from Brazil, especially those from the sole meat plant accredited by the government, will undergo 100-percent laboratory testing,” BAI Assistant Director Simeon S. Amurao Jr. told the BusinessMirror in an interview.
“We used to do laboratory testing of meat imports, but on a random basis. So, starting this week, it will be 100-percent inspection of all meat imports from Brazil,” Amurao added.
Amurao said only one Brazilian meat-packing plant was accredited to export meat to the Philippines. He said it is one of the 21 meat-packing plants currently being investigated by Brazilian authorities.
The BAI official said the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) will conduct the inspection of meat imports from Brazil. He said this could take anywhere from five to seven days.
”The container of imported meat will be brought to the government’s cold storage, where the NMIS will take a sample of the imported meat for laboratory testing,” Amurao added.
Amurao said the imported meat sourced from Brazil will only be allowed transshipment upon the clearance of the NMIS.
In an interview last week, Amurao made an assurance that no “rotten” meat from Brazil is being sold in the local market.
He said the BAI would immediately impose a total ban on Brazil meat imports if it finds out that “rotten” beef was able to enter the Philippines.
On March 17 Brazil’s federal police raided companies that allegedly bribed government inspectors to allow the shipment of rotten meat and meat tainted with salmonella.
Foreign news reports indicated 21 meat-packing plants were targeted by the police in an operation dubbed as “Operation Weak Flesh”, while three meat-packing plants have been shut down by the Brazilian government.
A report from Reuters revealed that BRF, the world’s biggest poultry exporter, and JBS, the world’s top beef producer, were part of the dozens of firms targeted in the police probe. However, both companies have denied any wrongdoing and assured consumers that their products meet rigorous quarantine standards, the Reuters report added.
The scandal forced major buyers of Brazilian meat to either suspend imports or impose more restrictions on shipments.
China, South Korea, Chile and Egypt earlier banned all Brazilian meat imports. But these countries eventually decided to limit the ban to the 21 meat-packing plants currently under investigation.
Data from the BAI showed that the Philippines imported 55,581.853 metric tons (MT) of meat and meat products from Brazil last year, 5.86 percent higher than the 52,505.429 MT recorded in 2015.
Beef accounted for 33.3 percent of meat purchases from Brazil. Government data showed that beef imports reached 18,524.966 MT, 69.04 percent higher than the 2015 record of 10,959.168 MT.
More than half of the country’s meat imports from Brazil was mechanically deboned meat (MDM) of chicken. Chicken MDM imports last year amounted to 30,557.036 MT, 18 percent lower than the 37,314.374 MT purchased in 2015.