470 kilos of ‘expired’ meat burned

CEBU, Philippines — Around 470 kilos of expired beef and lamb meat were disposed of Friday by the National Meat Inspection Service in Central Visayas (NMIS-7).

The agency, in a report, said it confiscated 469.86 kilos of imported meat from a cold storage warehouse following a monitoring and inspection.

The kilos of expired meat were disposed of through thermal destruction at the RRDS Petro-Chemical Industries, Inc. in Mandaue City, said NMIS-7.

“The products were expected to have been sold the previous year. However, due to the surge of the COVID-19 cases, which eventually affected the movement of goods, the products were unfortunately not disposed (of).”

“In such an inevitable scenario, the meat traders are left with no option but to voluntarily surrender the meat to the authorized disposal team for a proper meat destruction method,” NMIS-7 said in a Facebook post yesterday.

In a separate development, NMIS-7 also seized and disposed of two truckloads of “contaminated” dressed chicken on April 28.

NMIS, in a separate statement, said its deputized meat inspection officer found out about the presence of “metal particles in the newly harvested and chilled dressed chickens.”

“All affected batches were put on hold and after due investigation, it was finally decided to condemn and dispose of the products as these could pose risk to the safety of the consumers who might avail and consume it,’ it said.

The disposal, it said, was also in consonance with Republic Act 10611 (Food Safety Act of 2013).

Also, the agency confiscated around 60 kilos of “deteriorated” whole dressed chickens on Bantayan Island during the conduct of post-abattoir operations from April 29-30.

“During the meat market monitoring, one meat shop was found to have 49.95 kilos of whole dressed chickens with palpable putrid odor and slimy characteristics,” NMIS said.

In Cebu City, the agency intensified its meat market monitoring in four meat market channels here.

Vendors presented their meat inspection certificates to the enforcement group and also raised their concerns on the “unfair trading and pricing” of meat by sidewalk meat vendors, who were then given a warning. — KQD (FREEMAN)