Economy

Meatpackers BRF had “strategy” to cheat food safety inspections

meatpacker brf
Photo: BRF/Divulgação
meatpacker brf
Photo: BRF/Divulgação

Federal police (PF) investigating some of Brazil’s biggest meatpackers said that BRF deliberately tricked quality inspections. The revelation comes as a result of the latest phase of investigations into corruption, Operation Weak Flesh.

The federal judge overseeing the operations, André Wasilewski Duszczak, told media that there were “frauds committed in the manufacture of the Premix compound […] either by inserting components not allowed or by changing the percentages of the components indicated on the labels.”

The Federal Prosecution Office (MPF) said that such attempted frauds by the company are numerous, and that “formulas declared to federal supervision rarely match reality, containing drugs not allowed, substances dosed above the legal maximum allowed, or substances that are undeclared”.

Duszczak was responsible for the 91 court orders sent out, including the temporary arrest of BRF’s ex-president Pedro de Andrade Faria and ten others. They are accused of deliberate attempts to trick federal inspections and hide salmonella in BRF’s meats.

The coordinator of the investigation’s operation, Maurício Moscardi Grillo, said that an email exchange between officials at meatpacker BRF...

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