Brazil meat inspection flaws flagged in new blow to sector

Brazil’s meat industry lacks enough inspectors to ensure the product is safe, a health inspectors union said on Monday, blaming government cutbacks for what the United States has called system-wide sanitary issues. The ANFFA union renewed its longstanding criticism about budget cuts and understaffing after the United States blocked Brazilian fresh beef shipments late last week, saying it found abscesses in the meat and signs of systemic failure of inspections. The ban, twinned with the disclosure that the European Union had found E. coli and salmonella in meat and chicken exported from Brazil, was the latest black eye for a key sector of the country’s sprawling farm economy. Read more…