PH stops meat imports from Brazil

The Philippine government has slapped a temporary ban on the importation of meat from Brazil after salmonella was detected in some of the shipments from the Latin American country.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) issued Memorandum Order 32, authorizing the ban on Brazilian meat products, repealing the earlier memorandum stating that the temporary ban was only issued to 25 DA-accredited foreign meat establishments from Brazil.

The temporary suspension comes after a total of 246 out of 492 containers from Brazil were sampled by the DA-attached agency Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI). Out of those sampled, 18 containers or 7 percent tested positive for salmonella species.

According to BAI Assistant Director Simeon Amurao, the agency can assure the public that there is no rotten meat that has reached Philippine markets. Meat imports tainted with salmonella have already been confiscated by the National Meat Inspection Service.

All meat imports from Brazil were subjected to mandatory inspection and laboratory tests to ensure that these are safe for consumption, Amurao said.