More than a year after an official audit, the European Commission has finally acknowledged that Brazilian beef treated with oestradiol, a hormone strictly banned in the European Union since 2008, was indeed placed on the European market.
In January 2025, a representative of the Directorate-General for Health (DG Santé) had nonetheless categorically stated before the European Parliament's Environment Committee: "There is no evidence that meat from animals treated with oestradiol has been placed on the EU market". Yet on 25 February 2026, the Commission backtracked. A spokesperson acknowledged that frozen beef containing traces of this hormone entered the market of around ten Member States during 2024 and 2025.
"This revelation confirms our persistent concerns about traceability, the reliability of health controls and food safety regarding imports from Brazil. Referring the matter to the Court of Justice of the European Union on compliance with the precautionary principle under the EU-Mercosur trade agreement takes on its full meaning in light of these failures, which are dangerous for the health of European consumers," said Benoît Cassart, who initiated the resolution calling for the Court to be seized.
DG Santé has also published its assessment of the implementation of the action plan presented by Brazil in 2024 to address this situation. While some improvements are acknowledged, notably the strengthening of the network of control laboratories, one essential point remains unresolved: the guarantee that products from cattle treated with oestradiol 17β are not exported to the European Union. This central recommendation has not been followed; something the Commission itself regrets.
To justify itself, the European Commission states that at EU level, the volumes concerned represent only 0.1% of beef imports from Brazil. An argument that infuriates MEP Benoît Cassart: "Even if the quantities are limited, two major problems arise. First, we cannot trust our trading partners, yet trust is essential when signing an agreement. Second, we are importing farming practices that we have chosen to ban at home. This is a completely unacceptable lack of intellectual and political consistency."
"In addition to threatening our food autonomy in the short term by destroying our sugar, ethanol and poultry sectors, the agreement with Mercosur concretely shows here the public health risks linked to the increased opening of the European market to products that do not meet our standards. This confirms that our concerns about food safety, traceability and compliance with health standards are in no way imagined, but are based on documented facts," concluded Benoît Cassart, member of the European Parliament's Agriculture and International Trade committees.