Let's recap the conversation:
You: It’ll be project fear when some dodgy South American meat is transited through Europe and illegally brought through a U.K. port before being distributed throughout the country and causing a mass food incident
Me:Nothing new to see here.
There's been dodgy stuff in various meat products for a long time. Don't you ever watch the news...?
You: Like what
Me:
First paragraph:
https://www.euractiv.com/section/ag...ganisations-expose-misleading-meat-labelling/
Or this one:
https://www.globalmeatnews.com/Arti...port-slams-misleading-meat-industry-practices
The first paragraph under the sub-heading 'Contaminated'.
First point: we have imported meat from South America for decades, Argentina being a prime example. Never looked at the side of a corned beef tin?
Second point: Nothing new, because of what I have written in the previous line to this.
Third point: You asked for examples with your phrase 'Like what'
Fourth point: I gave examples.
Fifth point: You talk about protection from outside the EU. I refer you to my first point, above.
Right, let me take you to school with regards to your 1st point, Argentine meat.
Yes I’m well aware that both Brazil and Argentina are mass exporters tothe EU for their beef products. But how they do that:
1) only certain establishments in those countries can export meat. An establishment is a company that produces the product. To enable them to gain approval to meet the requirements to become an establishment then their plant must meet the hygiene requirements set out and in EU 852/853 & 854 2004 and ensure they comply with HACCP practices. They are audited regularly by the EU to ensure compliance to these regulations
2) when they export to the EU their product is supported by a health Certificate which is signed by aVet in Argentina to ensure that it was those products leaving the country and under strict controls (i.e. if frozen that the temperature was sufficient when leaving)
3) on arrival in the EU the goods can only arrive through a Border Inspection Post, not all ports have a BIP and these are regularly audited by the EU. Authorised BIPs can be found on 2009/821/EC.
4) the importer must submit the health certificate, which was signed by the vet, to a vet in a BIP along with a Common Vet Entry Document which is submitted via a EU database called TRACES. This system records the movement of the goods through the EU and results from of official checks by the vet in accordance with 97/78/EC plus sampling results, including failure
5) if that product fails at any port in Europe then all other ports are immediately aware via TRACES and will be more vigilant. If the product fails following sampling then the establishment from which the product arrives is placed on the Article 24 list and any products they originating from that establishments are unable to gain entry into the EU until 10 satisfactory samples have been taken from the next 10 imports, these can be at any BIP within the EU.
So you can see the tight controls and animal and human protection that is currently in place. Once we leave we have none of these controls and the ability to get spoiled meat increases massively. Importers can transit the goods through Ireland for example, place them on a RORO ferry to Holyhead and then before you know it there on the shelves. This is small compared to Dover considering that is the link to world trade via Europe.
I’ve just finished another meeting, lasting 9 hours today with representatives from DEFRA, FSA and HMRC. The threat is real and everyone is in a state of worry, 8 months out and we have no plan how to deal with any of the above mentioned points never mind additional infrastructure to put in place.
So please pipe down on information you have literally no clue on apart from quoting some stupid irrelevant articles
