USDA Reinstates Paraguay’s Food Safety Equivalence for Raw Beef After Two Decades of Halted Imports
In 1997, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA’s FSIS) halted all imports of beef from Paraguay due to the country’s failure to implement food safety requirements that were equivalent to those set forth in the FSIS final rule “Pathogen Reduction; Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) Systems.” Since 1997, FSIS has held technical discussions with Paraguayan officials and conducted audits to determine whether Paraguay’s food safety inspection system for meat is equivalent to the inspection system in the U.S.
Specifically in 2021 and 2022, FSIS reviewed Paraguay’s documented food safety inspection program for raw intact beef, and conducted onsite verification audits of its beef slaughter and raw further processing. FSIS concluded that Paraguay’s food safety inspection system for raw beef products is equivalent to that of the U.S. The audit reports can be viewed on USDA’s website.