2019-03-28

The EU – Brazil Sector Dialogues promotes seminar to present technical file of European cheeses

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The event is part of a project within the framework of the Sector Dialogues to reduce the rate of refused product registrations, currently at around 50%.  The goal is to consolidate the technical knowledge on the characteristics of typically European products exported to Brazil, as provided in the Brazilian legislation, making the registration of products a transparent, agile, fair and standardized process.

Danish specialist Arne Fokdal, as the European project expert, gave a detailed description of 29 European kinds of cheese (Italian, French and Dutch), their history, composition, methods of production and marketing.  Luciana Meneghetti, Head of Inspection of the Department of Inspection of Products of Animal Origin (DIPOA), of MAPA’s Secretariat of Agriculture and Livestock Protection, talked about her technical mission to Europe in order to learn about the cheese making process in Italy and the Netherlands. These countries were chosen because they are the largest cheese exporters to Brazil.

"Our team registers a lot of European cheeses here in Brasilia, but we just knew about them on paper.  The technical mission to Europe gave us the opportunity to see the manufacturing of these products in situ and learn about the expectation of the exporting countries regarding their trade with Brazil. We were also introduced to products they believe are more likely to be exported, and we got to know the questions and difficulties faced in the registration process," Luciana said.

According to her, the Brazilian delegation was asked a storm of questions in some of the factories they visited and tried to answer everything about registration, legal additives,  accepted physicochemical and microbiological criteria in Brazil.

Now, the technical files prepared in English by the European expert will be translated into Portuguese and be made available for consultation by MAPA technicians.  The technical files will assist the Ministry's technicians in the registration process of European products of animal origin, streamlining processes and thus facilitating the importation of these products.

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