Food Safety in Brazil : time to change.
Since March of 2006, brazilian honeys are banned in the european market by reccomendation of the FVO - Food and Veterinary Office, the official body controlling the food safety in the European Union. The reason for the ban was not the dettection of unacceptable contents in the brazilian honeys such as antibiotic residues nor the sanitary conditions of the facilities dealing with honey in the country. The reason for the ban which has been impacting the life of several thousand families all over the country was the lack of efficiency and responsability of the brazilian government that in a first moment simply ignored the requests of the FVO (still in 2003) for the country to comply to the EU residues control program. Brazilian honeys have no trace of any residues because in the country the african "killing" bees prevail in most of the hives and as this variant specie is naturaly more resistant to most of the diseases, there is no need to treat the hives with any antibiotic at all. After the embargo was declared hundreds of samples of brazilian honeys have been tested by qualified labs in Germany and not a single trace of any residue was found. At the same time brazilian honey processing plants are respected as high care facilities compared to others, even in Europe and USA. We are one of the few countries that homogeneize the honeys before exporting it. Finally, most of brazilian honeys come from very isolated areas in remote spots of the Northeast region, what makes the honey as "organic" by nature. Even so, brazilian honeys are still out of the european market. Brazilian beef exporters can not sell their products in various countries including USA. Again, not because the product is not good or because the processing plants don't comply to the desired quality standarts, but because the Government has not been capable to establish an effective system to monitor and control cattle diseases. If one wants to export any alcoholic beverage in bulk from Brazil, the customs require a certificate of analysis issued by the Agriculture Ministery (or any accredited private laboratory). However the exporters can send any sample they want for such tests, there is not any guarantee that the exported cargoes refer to the analysed samples unless a physical check was in place at the moment of the shipment. At the same time if a established company wants to import a couple of wine bottles for prospection purposes the Agriculture Ministery can block the package at customs if the receipt is not a registered wine importer or dealer. The burocracy that one must comply to receive one or two dozen samples of wines in Brazil is something near the Dante's inferno.
In the past weeks the brazilian federal police discovered a mafia that was adulterating milk in Brazil in various cities in Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais, one of the involved companies was the giant Parmalat. According to the Agriculture Ministery regulations, an official inspector must follow up the production and shipment of milk virtually on a daily basis... This case proved the complete failure of the Agriculture Ministery management and work system.
As far as I understand, it sounds the conception of how the brazilian government works these sanitary issues is completely outdated. In the country, everybody knows the "SIF" seal - issued by the Agriculture Ministery to facilities that are working under acceptable quality system - is only a conjunction of 3 letters, meaning very little in terms of the real quality of the product. Most of the time, the SIF seal means only that such maker is a legal established business dealing with food.
Thus, instead of complaining about the crescent tougher requirements (regarding food safe) from european or american governments we should pay more attention to who we are choosing to represent us here in Brazil because in the end of the day, these are the guys that flood all the Ministeries with narrowminded politics and relatives that have no concern other than their own bank statements.
It is time to change.
posted by John @ 7:46 AM
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