The Beef Plan Movement is demanding immediate answers from the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) over a glaring double standard in how food safety crises are handled in this country. We want to know why a recent contamination issue in poultry was met with total public transparency, while a severe incident involving carcinogenic hormone-treated Brazilian beef in 2025 has been shrouded in secrecy.
It has been established that a consignment of beef originating from Brazil, and later found to contain traces of oestradiol, a growth hormone strictly banned in the EU due to its potential carcinogenic effects, was distributed to food businesses and retailers in Ireland.
As an organisation dedicated to the integrity of Irish farming and the safety of consumers, the Beef Plan Movement believes this poses a severe public health risk. Yet, the public was never informed of the retailers or food outlets involved in the sale of this toxic product.
The official stance from the FSAI appears to be that because the meat was past its official “use-by” date when the issue was fully tracked, the immediate risk had passed. In our view, this explanation is simply not good enough.
The FSAI stated that the product was removed from shelves but failed to specify that this ‘removal’ consisted of consumers purchasing it and presumably also consuming it or storing for later consumption. It was not removed from shelves by HSE inspectors and destroyed. This positioning is misleading consumers into believing that official action had been taken into preventing the consumption of meat containing banned hormones. Furthermore, no alerts were issued that some of the meat may still be sitting in freezers, yet to be consumed. We can’t only speculate as to why the FSAI would act in a manner that obscures the reality of the situation but it seems clear that they did and no answers are forthcoming on why or what purpose it served. As the products and the food businesses were not named the consumers of this meat do not know that they consumed it. Do they not deserve to know ?
The Beef Plan Movement wants the exact same reaction to this Brazilian beef crisis as we recently witnessed with a food scare regarding a consignment of chicken. When that poultry issue arose, retailers acted swiftly, publicly, and transparently to protect the consumer.
Consider the clear, proactive statement that was openly publicised on the SuperValu website regarding that incident:
”As a precautionary measure SuperValu are recalling the following Poultry Product lines due to the possible presence of Salmonella. Although the implicated batches are past their use by date, the products are suitable for home freezing. Consumers are advised to check their freezers for the implicated batch”
This is exactly how the Brazilian beef issue should have been handled. This statement acknowledges a simple, everyday reality: consumers freeze food.
The justification that the Brazilian meat is past its expiry date completely ignores the fact that this contaminated beef may still be sitting in someone’s freezer today, waiting to be consumed by an unsuspecting family.
The Beef Plan Movement has made contact with the FSAI on numerous occasions to demand the same level of accountability seen in the chicken recall. We have repeatedly requested the names of the specific food outlets and retailers who sold this beef so that consumers can audit their own freezers. Every single time, our requests have been met with a wall of silence. We could not attain the names.
We must ask: Why was the reaction so fundamentally different?
Why is there a double standard? When it comes to a domestic retail poultry issue, we see a full, transparent public recall. But when it comes to cheap, imported Brazilian beef containing banned, carcinogenic hormones, there seems to have been much hidden about the sale of the product. Who is being protected here, and why?
Irish farmers adhere to the highest, most stringent food safety and animal welfare standards in the world to guarantee a premium, safe product. It is entirely unacceptable that substandard, chemically treated imports can slip into our food chain.
The Beef Plan Movement demands equal treatment and total market transparency. Irish consumers have a right to know what they are eating, and they have a right to be told publicly if that Brazilian beef is sitting in their freezers today.