Task force steps up drive vs FMD

As part of an intensive public awareness campaign against foot and mouth disease (FMD), the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) is urging consumers to make sure that what they are buying is healthy and quality meat by looking for the National Meat Inspection Commis-sion (NMIC) seal gua-ranteeing that tho-rough meat inspection has taken place in the slaughterhouse.

There are some prac-tical ways of which a regular meat consumer could detect if the meat they are purchasing is fresh or not. In contrast to the fresh meat’s pin-kish color, meat that is not fresh is darker because of lack of oxygen.

This occurs when the meat has been ex-posed for a long time, causing the meat surface to dry up. This dark color sometimes includes a yel-lowish, greenish or blackish tinge which means that the meat is contaminated. The contaminated meat may emit a rancid smell and the meat surface feels slimy .

Consumer pressure should be applied on the meat source and the process that it went through before landing on any household table.

According to BAI Director Jose Q. Molina : "There should be no way for any unhealthy meat to find its way on our table."

"The power to purchase quality meat is in our hands, we should be observant in ensu-ring that this power is utilized responsibly. Every consumer, or every meat-eating Fili-pino for that matter, should be involved in demanding assurance from meat producers such as the slaughter-houses, the meat dealers and vendors that we get our money’s worth," Molina said.

Meanwhile, the National FMD Task Force introduced last week Super Pig which will make the rounds among public markets to drum up interest in the government’s campaign to eradicate FMD.