The requirement that 20% of fresh beef meat and offal imported into the European Union from the USA should be tested for the presence of banned hormones, is to be lifted, after EU vets approved a proposal from the European Commission.
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The checks were introduced on September 1999, when all imports had to be examined; this was reduced to 20% in September 2000. Now, as soon as bureaucratic procedures in Brussels are completed, American beef will be subject to the standard random checks for banned residues carried out on all meat imports.
The Commission said that the move follows the results of recent tests, which had failed to detect the presence of banned growth-promoting xenobiotic hormones in US beef.
By Keith Nuthall, just-food.com correspondent
