TheMeatSite Newsletter - 6 July 2011

TheMeatSite Weekly Newsletter

Wednesday 6th July 2011

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Welcome to this week's newsletter

Editorial: Concerns Rise over Global SPS Agreements

Global agreements over sanitary and phytosanitary regulations controlling the movement of meat and food products around the world came under threat this week.

Concern is growing among World Trade Organization members that the failure of Codex Alimentarius to come to a decision over potentially safe levels of the beta-agonist Ractopamine residues in meat could undermine the whole system of setting global sanitary and phytosanitary standards.

WTO members debated last week whether the Organization’s rules on food safety are undermined by an international standard-setting body’s failure to agree on maximum residue limit for the feed additive.

The discussion in the Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures Committee, which deals with food safety and animal and plant health, took place a week before the proposed standard is again on the agenda of the Codex Alimentarius Commission.

The debate hinged on whether disagreement about setting a maximum residue limit for the feed additive ractopamine endangers the scientific basis of WTO rules or whether resorting only to a scientific opinion undermines the need for the rules to be more broadly based.

In Europe, the Dutch Parliament has voted to make stunning prior to slaughter, including for religious slaughter obligatory in the Netherlands.

This ends the exemption for religious slaughter, where animals are killed fully conscious without stunning on religious grounds.

The European Commission has also set aside €37.6 million for promotional activities for agricultural products.

This includes meat products from Germany, Poland and the UK as well as programmes in 13 other countries including organic promotion and promotion for PGI status products.

In New Zealand, following support for the themes and direction of the recently released Red Meat Sector Strategy (RMSS), a newly appointed Red Meat Sector Strategy Coordinating Group (SCG) has been formed, which will draw from the Meat Industry Association, Beef + Lamb New Zealand and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry plus two independent members, to help implement the strategy.

Chris Harris

This Week's Feature Articles

We have 6 new features this week:

Consumers Express Concern about EHEC Bacteria
The news coverage of the recent deadly EHEC bacteria outbreak in Europe came as a bombshell to consumers and their concerns were measured by researchers at Ghent University in Belgium, who examined 6132 reactions of Belgian newspaper readers after reading the first news reports.

New Steps to Classify Health and Safety of Shellfish
Steps are being taken in the shellfish industry together with the Food Standards Agency in the UK to improve the classification system for bi-valve beds around the British coastline, writes Chris Harris.

MAF New Zealand Beef Outlook
International prices of beef rose sharply in the last half of 2010 and early 2011, owing to falling global production and export availability and increasing demand. New Zealand meat production in the year to 30 June 2011 has been reduced by adverse weather in the second half of 2010. Assuming normal climatic conditions, production is expected to recover in the next season; however, beyond 2012 land use change to dairy will constrain production.

MAF New Zealand Dairy Outlook
US dollar prices for dairy products have been at high levels over the course of the 2010/11 dairy season, well above the previous year but still below the levels reached in 2007/08. The strong demand driving this rise is likely to remain but additional supply in 2012 and beyond is expected to drive international prices down from current levels.

International Meat Review 23 June 2011
US beef and veal exports were nearly 25 per cent up year on year according to the laterst statistics from the USDA.

Food Market Concentration in Mexico
The Mexican agricultural and food sector is marked by varying degrees of market concentration by sub-sector, according to the latest GAIN Report from the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS). Animal feed and poultry meat production are much more concentrated than beef, pig or egg production.