GREEN ISLE Foods, the leading food processor, has refuted allegations that it uses Brazilian beef from farms responsible for illegal deforestation in the Amazon rainforest.

A new report from environmental group Greenpeace has claimed Green Isle's supplier of Brazilian beef, Marfrig, which is partly owned by the Brazilian state, sources cattle from farms established on deforested land.

Northern Foods, the British ready-meals giant which owns Green Isle, told the Sunday Tribune that none of the Brazilian beef used by Green Isle came from the Amazon region. "The only Brazilian beef we buy for our Green Isle business is cooked beef from a single site in Sao Paulo state, not in or near the Amazon basin," it said.