DA: No guarantee on meat imports’ safety

CEBU — Meat imports are never subjected to any test for safety, Agriculture Secretary Leonardo Montemayor admitted.

This includes meat imports from European countries that are the subject of a ban imposed amid fears of the spread of the so-called "Mad Cow Disease."

Hence, there is no guarantee imported meats are safe for consumption, Montemayor said in a telephone interview with The Freeman.

"We cannot be sure that these are, indeed, safe. That’s why everyone should take precautions," he said.

Montemayor said there were European meat shipments that entered the country before the ban took effect last Nov. 29.

The Philippines implemented the ban after the outbreak of Mad Cow Disease (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy), a relatively new cattle disease, in Europe.

Rachel Titular, Montemayor’s chief of staff, said the Philippine government merely assumes that once the meat is cleared at its point of origin, it must have undergone proper testing by authorities in that country.

She said Europe uses internationally accepted quarantine procedures so certifications issued by European countries are taken at face value.

Dr. Florence Silvano, quarantine officer at the Bureau of Animal Industry in Manila, said meat imports coming from whatever country of origin, as a rule, do not undergo tests.

She said that as long as a shipment has a health certificate from the country of origin stating that the meat is free from Mad Cow or any other diseases, the imported meat is automatically cleared for sale in the Philippine market.

Mad Cow Disease is a progressive neurological disorder in cattle, but which has been known to be capable of inter-species transmission and in fact, has infected humans in Britain.

Montemayor said meat products coming from the United Kingdom were initially banned sometime in 1997 because of the disease, but the ban was lifted in January 2000 and later reimposed last November, this time covering all European countries.

The Bureau of Customs recently seized tons of frozen boneless Irish beef imported by Monterey Foods Corp.

Monterey subsequently refused to take delivery of the shipment, saying the meat failed the standards of the National Meat Inspection Commission.

But at least a previous shipment of Irish beef had allegedly entered the local market.

It was not clear if yet another earlier shipment of Irish beef which Monterey also imported, also entered the local market because of conflicting claims by Bureau of Animal Industry officials and Monterey’s broker.

While the government said the meat from that particular shipment was sent back to Ireland, the broker insisted the meat was actually delivered and that his company, in fact, paid customs duties for it. — Freeman News Service