Posted by Poultry World editor, Richard Allison, in Brazil
After four days in Brazil on a media trip, I finally have onto a poultry site. And the first thing that hits you is the scale of the operation. Huge processing plants purely dedicated to producing chicken for export to Japan, the Middle East and Europe.
Mention Brazilian chicken in the UK and you often hear comments like "they operate to lower welfare standards" and "they don't have the same level of traceability." But the bad news for UK producers is from what I have seen, they are actually going beyond EU standards.
They have to as they are supplying some of the most demanding markets in the world, the EU, Japan and Canada. Failure means loosing these valuable markets.
Take food hygiene as an example, the Brazilian government has introduced a rigorous inspection regime for all food production, beef, poultry and lamb. It is in response to the poor global image of Brazilian food production.
Take the Avipal processing plant as an example. It has a weekly throughput of 800,000birds/day and there is an army of 54 full-time Federal (government) inspectors ensuring the company maintains welfare and hygiene standards. They are paid by the government, independent of the poultry company and are present on the floor all the time.
The company has its own employees checking equipment hygiene, sampling products from each batch for various pathogens, such as salmonella, checking ventilation levels, ect. The Federal inspectors then verify these checks. It's like a double check system.
If there is a problem, the batch is then recalled. There is also a whole host of checks before each shift and the line cannot start until the Federal inspectors are happy that standards are up to scratch.
It just made me think of the UK government and its policy of full cost recovery with the Meat Hygiene Service. Perhaps if the UK government supported its domestic industry more by or part funding these checks, it would go some way in helping the sector regain its global competitiveness.