Ciaran Mullooly MEP and Michael Fitzmaurice TD have written to the Food Safety Authority of Ireland seeking an urgent meeting and an immediate review of Brazilian beef and meat products currently present in the Irish food supply chain. Mr Mullooly has also written separately to European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Olivér Várhelyi, seeking confirmation that meat imports from the Brazilian establishments concerned will remain suspended unless and until full compliance with EU requirements has been verified. In his letter to Commissioner Várhelyi, Mr Mullooly said the Commission’s response was essential to protect consumers, maintain confidence in the integrity of the EU food safety system and ensure fairness for European farmers and food producers.
The Independent Ireland representatives said the separate request to the FSAI follows the decision at EU level to leave Brazil off an updated Commission list of third countries authorised to export food-producing animals and animal products to the EU under the Union’s rules on antimicrobial use. From 3 September 2026, Brazil will no longer be authorised to export a range of animal products to the EU, including bovine products, unless compliance with EU antimicrobial requirements is demonstrated.
The letter to the FSAI asks whether it will review Brazilian beef currently in Ireland, examine traceability and certification documentation, advise public bodies and State-funded food suppliers, and require suppliers to provide batch-specific evidence of compliance with EU veterinary-medicine, antimicrobial, residue-control and traceability standards. “We are asking for an immediate review of Brazilian beef and meat products currently on the Irish market, including in schools, hospitals and other State-funded food supply chains,” said Mr Mullooly. “Given the EU position and the Commissioner’s own comments last March, Irish authorities cannot simply wait until September 2026. Irish farmers warned that beef from Mercosur countries must not be allowed into the European market unless it meets the same standards required of EU producers. This is exactly why we have raised concerns about Mercosur.
Mr Mullooly said the latest development must also be seen in the context of concerns he raised directly with Commissioner Várhelyi in the European Parliament last March about Brazilian beef, recent EU audits, hormone controls and the entry of contaminated beef into the EU food chain. At that exchange last March, Mr Mullooly asked the Commissioner about “5,000 kilos of hormone-contaminated Brazilian beef” which had entered the food chain in the Netherlands and Ireland and had, at that time, been “consumed by consumers, eaten before any food recall.”
In response Commissioner Várhelyi confirmed the Commission was aware of the case and had acted on it. “Yes, I can confirm that there was an entry of 5,000 kilogrammes of beef that have contained a hormone,” Commissioner Várhelyi had said. “Unfortunately, not only contained a hormone, but it seems that they have not only been male bovine meat, but also female, that have been clearly excluded from the possibility for exports to the European Union.” The Commissioner also told Mr Mullooly last March that the Commission believed there had been coordination in the way the consignments entered the EU. “This is exactly the case on which I think that there must have been some coordination in trying to avoid the controls, because the consignments have arrived to several entry points,” Commissioner Várhelyi said. “So it was strategically organised, let’s put it this way.”
Mr Mullooly said those March comments, combined with the latest EU decision on Brazil’s status under antimicrobial import rules, now require an immediate Irish response.
“This is no longer a theoretical concern. Trade agreements must never become a back door for lower-standard beef. This is about fairness, food safety and public trust. The message is simple: no EU standards, no EU market.”