The BSE epidemic is in decline and British beef is once more allowed to be exported. But BSE fears still have their uses. On several occasions in the past couple of years, the United States Department for Agriculture (USDA) has withdrawn several thousand tonnes of Brazilian beef imports from the American market on the grounds of minor infringements of the rules on labelling. Two years ago, all imports of beef from Brazil were prohibited for several months ‘pending the release of requested data to complete a bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) risk assessment’.
Americans consumers, meanwhile, are being wooed by a ‘boycott Brazil’ campaign run from the grasslands of Kansas, which claims to be ‘attempting to help people understand the Brazilian mad-cow issue’. ‘It is essential that all countries suspend the import of beef and associated products from Brazil,’ the website announces, listing milk chocolate as one of the products which must be avoided.
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