Brazilian beef, fisheries, milk, eggs, honey and other products of animal origin that are sold in Brazil and in over 180 other countries get the stamp of Brazil's Federal Inspection Service (SIF). The image printed on the stamp guarantees the quality and origin of the food, and attests it has been inspected by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply.
Behind the SIF stamp, there are approximately 1,000 federal agricultural inspectors and over 7,000 inspection agents who operate inside the industries, monitoring the sanitary conditions, the production technology and the meeting of regulations.
These professionals work at nearly 4,000 establishments enrolled with the Department of Products of Animal Origin, which belongs to the Agricultural Defense Secretariat (Dipoa/SDA) to attest that the foods produced meet all of the sanitary requirements and best practices in manufacturing.
The federal inspection is carried out in all of the establishments that receive, manipulate, process or store beef, milk, fish, egg and honey destined for interstate or international trade, such as slaughterhouses, dairy farms and hubs.
The inspection and sanitary inspection procedures adopted aim to preserve the innocuousness, identity, quality and integrity of products of animal origin and the health and interests of the consumer.
At the companies, the inspectors check whether the procedures are being correctly executed during the production process. In case serious faults are detected, such as fraud or sanitary risk, the company is sued and the product is either seized or destroyed. In some cases, the production line or even the establishment is interdicted.
During the administration of Brazilian president Venceslau Brás, in 1915, the Decree #11,460 determined that the Veterinary Service would from then on be named "Inspection Service for Animal Product Factories." In that same year, the first regulation was set, with only 23 clauses that already provided the guidelines for the Inspection Arm of the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Trade.
Up until 1917, the clearing of shipments of beef to the countries at war was made by hired foreign professionals or by Brazilian microbiologists. The inspections were made in tours, and inspectors could be transferred to any point in the national territory by the ministry of Agriculture.
During that period, the stamp that certified the products inspected by the ministry bore the initials of the Pastoral Industry Service (SIP, in the Portuguese acronym). With the reorganization of the inspection sector, state-level services were created at meat factories and hubs, milk processing plants and dairy farms.