IFA President Francie Gorman said the active recalls of Brazilian beef from EU markets raises further and very serious questions about the controls in Brazil.
The recalls follow the discovery of hormones in beef exported to the EU from Brazil. They raise very significant concerns around the lack of robust controls in slaughterhouses in Brazil, which has allowed hormone beef to enter the EU and be sold to European citizens.
Further details of the recalls are available here:
RASFF Window – Notification detail Notification 2025.8932 (November)
RASFF Window – Notification detail Notification 2025.8939 (November)
RASFF Window – Notification detail Notification 2025.9134 (November)
RASFF Window – Notification detail Notification 2025.6155 (August)
Francie Gorman said these recalls are underway as a report on the findings of the Irish Farmer Association/Irish Farmers Journal investigation on the production standards for beef in Brazil is launched.
“The recall and the findings have to be a serious wake up call for the bureaucrats and cheerleaders attempting to usher through a Mercosur trade deal for the benefit of big industry at the expense of European farmers and the health and wellbeing of EU citizens.
See report into the Brazil Investigation in full here.
“During the almost 3,000 km investigation across four Brazilian states, our investigators were able to walk in off the street to general agri-stores and purchase prescription-only injectable antibiotics, including highest-priority critically important antimicrobials, without any prescription, questions, or recording of buyer details.”
“On the same trip, visits to farms, marts and slaughter plants revealed cattle with no official tags; removable tags freely on sale with applicators and removers; and no functioning national database of animals or holdings,” Francie Gorman said.
These observations fundamentally contradict both the Commission’s public claims about the EU–Mercosur agreement and the EU’s own One Health strategy on antimicrobial resistance and traceability.
Francie Gorman said these findings are no surprise to the EU’s own auditors who have continually identified serious issues with the self-certification system allowed for beef from this country enter the EU.
The IFA President said he will be bringing this report to the Government, our MEPs and directly to the Commission.
He said based on the findings of our investigation and the DG Sante’s own auditors, beef produced in Brazil cannot be credibly certified to meet EU production standards.
Francie Gorman said our findings highlight an issue with the Mercosur trade deal much greater than just the livelihoods of Irish and EU farmers. This deal is trading off the health and well-being of EU citizens for big industry by validating the free-for-all usage of antibiotics we have highlighted in Brazil.
“If allowed through, this deal will undermine all of the efforts of the EU in addressing the global problem of AMR and jeopardise the effectiveness of antibiotics for future generations,” he added.
Dr Patrick Wall, in assessing the findings of this investigation for IFA, said for EU observers this is not a marginal detail of local practice: it goes to the heart of the Union’s strategy on antimicrobial resistance (AMR), public health protection and the principle that imported food should be produced to standards equivalent to those required inside the EU.
“Public health cannot be compromised or selectively applied to facilitate trade deals. If AMR is the major global health threat that the EU and WHO say it is, then the standards applied to EU farmers must also inform the conditions placed on imports,” Dr Patrick Wall stated.
IFA President Francie Gorman said the following actions must arise from the investigation in Brazil:
- Irish Government and MEPs must honour commitments to EU consumers and EU farmers on standards food allowed onto shelves in the EU must be produced to.
- Beef and poultry concessions under EU–Mercosur must be suspended until Brazil can demonstrate an operational, audited individual animal identification and national traceability system equivalent to EU requirements.
- There must be verifiable controls on veterinary antibiotics, including effective prescription-only status and oversight of highest-priority critically important antimicrobials, as a precondition for beef export certification to the EU.
- DG SANTE must conduct an urgent, on-the-ground audit focused specifically on AMR-relevant practices (antibiotic access, prescription controls, traceability) before any ratification steps.
