In the last years and, in line with the EU Green Deal, the EU Commission has presented an Action Plan aimed at reducing and ceasing the use of antibiotics for growth promotion and preventive purposes.
This way, since today, the European Union becomes the first region to ban the use of antibiotics and a leader in reducing the use of antibiotics in meat production, which at the end has a positive impact on the environment and on the consumers’ health.
In order to achieve a more sustainable sector, the beef production of the EU will be based in 3 basic aspects:
- Prohibition of the use of antibiotics for growth promotion and preventive purposes→ the new EU regulations, which establish that the use of all forms of routine antibiotic use in farming will be prohibited, will enter into force on the 28th January 2022.
- More effective veterinary controls → in order to neutralize the potential negative impact of the ban of the use of antibiotics in the production, more strict and effective veterinary controls will be performed. Besides, closer cooperation between farmers and vets is expected, thus assuring that the best possible production decisions are made.
- High standards of animal welfare → assuring animal welfare has also been a priority for the EU farmers as high animal welfare assures lower antibiotic use and products of the highest quality. In this sense, the EU has set a standard of animal welfare, which have to be met by all the meat producers.
