Tester Statement on USDA Lifting Brazilian Beef Ban

Following 2017 reports of rotten beef, Tester successfully pushed USDA to suspend imports from Brazil

U.S. Senator Jon Tester today released the following statement after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) lifted the suspension of the importation of raw Brazilian beef products into the United States.

“Let’s be clear, Brazil put American families at risk by exporting rotten beef into American grocery stores and covering it up with cancer-causing chemicals,” said Tester. “Now, Secretary Perdue is letting them off the hook without a long-term plan to make sure it doesn’t happen again. This is a slap in the face to Montana producers, who raise the highest quality beef in the world, and to Montana families, who shouldn’t have to worry if meat they buy at the store is safe for their kids to eat.”

Following reports in 2017 that Brazil was exporting rotten beef and attempting to cover it up with cancer-causing acid products, Tester successfully urged the USDA to implement a ban on Brazilian fresh beef imports. Last year, Tester introduced legislation that would require the Secretary of Agriculture to create a working group comprised of food safety experts and relevant trade agencies to comprehensively investigate safety threats related to Brazilian beef.

As the only working farmer in the U.S. Senate, Tester has worked tirelessly to ensure that food across the country is safe to eat. Following the reports that Brazilian beef was unsafe, Tester introduced legislation to ban its import and wrote a letter to the Secretary of Agriculture urging him to reinstate the ban.