European supermarket chains J Sainsbury, Carrefour and Ahold Delhaize will stop selling several Brazilian meat products because the investigation found that they caused The destruction of the Amazon rainforest.

Since last month, there has been increasing pressure to stop deforestation COP26 Climate Summit In Glasgow.

This has resulted in more than 100 countries committing to end meat production by 2030 Livestock raised on cleared land in rainforest and savanna ——The main source of carbon emissions.

As the world’s largest beef exporter, Brazil’s meat processing industry has long faced scrutiny of its supply chain and its impact on climate change.

Sainsbury’s, the second largest supermarket chain in the UK, the Belgian store of French retailer Carrefour, and Albert Heijn, the largest chain store in the Netherlands, made the decision investigation Released on Thursday by environmental activists Mighty Earth and NGO Repórter Brasil.

The report highlighted the risk of contamination of the supply chain from processed meat. Cows from deforested areas were sent to suppliers for fattening and eventually slaughtered by processors such as JBS, Marfrig and Minerva. This meat eventually appeared in European supermarkets as products, such as beef jerky, corned beef and premium cuts.

According to academics, about one-fifth of the beef imported by the EU from Brazil each year is related to illegal deforestation in the Amazon rainforest and the Cerrado savannah. ResearchHowever, high consumer demand for the product has pushed the deforestation rate of Amazon rain forecasts to the highest level in 15 years.

Albert Heijn said on Thursday that it will stop purchasing beef from Brazil for all of its stores. Sainsbury’s said it will transfer its own brand of corned beef from Brazil.

It has been selling corned beef processed by JBS, even though Warn about beef products related to deforestation Released in 2019 by Earthsight, an environmental and social movement organization.

Belgian Carrefour and French retailer Auchan added that they will cancel beef jerky products produced by the JBS joint venture.

Carrefour stated that it would “strengthen the supervision of all the countries in which it operates,” while Sainsbury stated that it “played an active role in setting clear requirements for the Brazilian beef industry and worked with meat processors to increase the supply of the industry. Chain transparency”.

At the same time, Lidl Netherlands stated that it will stop selling South American beef from next month. German Metro, which purchases filet mignon from Marfrig, said it is investigating the report’s claims.

JBS stated that it “does not tolerate illegal deforestation, forced labor, abuse of indigenous lands, protection of units or violations of environmental embargoes.” It added that it had blocked suppliers who did not comply with its policies.

The company said: “We have invested heavily in a new blockchain platform to overcome this challenge and achieve a completely illegal deforestation-free supply chain by 2025.”

Marfrig said that so far, more than 60% of its suppliers in the Amazon region and 47% of the suppliers in the Cerrado Prairie region have drawn maps, and will map their entire supply chain by 2030.

Minerva said it has begun testing with a digital tool developed by the University of Wisconsin in collaboration with the National Wildlife Federation, which can assess risks in the supply chain.

Additional reporting by Jonathan Eley in London

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