The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service found several problems in Brazil’s meat inspection system.
FSIS conducted inspection audits on-site in Brazil from May 15 to June 2. The goal was to determine if Brazil’s food safety system is comparable to the one in America and capable of exporting safe, wholesome, and unadulterated foods that are labeled and packaged correctly.
Inspectors found deficiencies in government oversight, including no policies or procedures to find possible conflict of interest problems between inspection personnel and the facility they work at. There’s also no verification that in-plant inspectors perform their assigned duties in a manner consistent with their instructions. A myriad of other problems in the system includes no enforcement of sanitary regulations to prevent potential product contamination.
FSIS says officials pledged to address the problems in the system. FSIS will “evaluate just how proposed corrections will work and base future audits on those corrections.”
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting News Service.