Street food vendors using imported meat

CEBU, Philippines - Officials of the National Meat Inspection Service yesterday announced that some “pungko-pungko” or street food vendors and chicharon makers in Carcar City are using imported meat for their products.

Dr. Alvin Leal of the NMIS, however, assured the public that the imported meat products are still good for human consumption if it will be cooked right away once thawed.

But NMIS-7 executive director Romeo Capa, a veterinarian by profession, explained that imported meat should be handled properly according to their set guidelines.

Leal said that their office inspected 29,540 tons of imported meat that arrived and were distributed to different places in Central Visayas last year, but records show that only 154 metric tons were sold in various department stores in Cebu City.

Leal explained that some of the street food vendors and chicharon makers in Carcar City are already patronizing imported meat because it is much cheaper compared to locally-produced meat products.

The locally-produced meat products are sold at P170 per kilo while imported meat can be bought at only P120, Leal said during the 888 News Forum at the Marco Polo Plaza Hotel yesterday.

Imported meat products are not totally banned in the wet markets, but the vendors should see to it that they have freezers for these. In Cebu City, imported meat products are confiscated if caught being displayed openly and not inside the cold storage.

City veterinarian Alice Utlang earlier said that she received reports that some unscrupulous vendors wash frozen or chilled imported meat products then pass it off as local meat to gain more profit. The imported meat arrives in the country frozen or chilled to keep its freshness.

According to Utlang that bacteria increases the moment the meat is thawed and not cooked right away.

“Kon human ang karne mahumok unya ibalik na usab sa cold storage, modaghan na ang bacteria og makadaut na sa tawo,” she said.

But Capa explained that the imported meat products that are sold in groceries of department stores are safe for human consumption because these are placed inside the cold storage.

Utlang observed that the number of hogs being slaughtered in the city is lessening probably because of the influx of imported meat.

The officials of the Central Visayas Pork Producers’ Cooperative and the Cebu City United Vendors Association are complaining saying imported meat is competing with suppliers of local pork. – (FREEMAN)