The European Commission has criticised the Irish Farmers Association's investigation into beef farming practices in Brazil which claimed there was a complete lack of controls and use of illegal hormones on Brazilian farms.
A spokesman for health commissioner Markos Kyprianou said although the IFA team had visited farms and border crossings, they "did not apparently visit farms in the system for exports to the EU nor did they visit slaughterhouses, laboratories or official control bodies".
"For this reason they were unable to assess the application in Brazil of the EU measures in place to regulate the export of beef to the EU," he said. The IFA team had been in Brazil from May 12th-19th.
On foot of its findings the team called for a ban on imported beef from Brazil. It said it found evidence of non-existent or unreliable cattle traceability, widespread removal of cattle tags, inadequate border controls, ineffective foot-and-mouth controls and the use of hormone growth promoters banned in the EU.
The EU spokesman said it was still evaluating the report and had demanded auditable evidence from Brazil on difficulties EU food and veterinary experts had uncovered when they carried out an official inspection late last year.
These problems included monitoring FMD vaccinations, reduced delays in laboratory testing and delays in the implementation of the electronic cattle-tagging system being used in Brazil.
John Bryan, who led the IFA investigation, accused the commission of "irresponsibility" by placing European food safety and animal health at an unacceptable risk with Brazilian beef imports.
The findings will be presented to the European Parliament's agriculture committee on July 16th.