Cebuanos consume the most horse meat

CEBU CITY — Believe it or no but Cebuanos appear on record as the biggest consumers of horse meat in the entire country.

And the funny thing is that Cebuanos may not even know they are eating horse meat at all.

This year alone, in the 10-month period from January to October, a total of 218 tons of horse meat had been produced in Cebu City from 1,450 horses slaughtered mostly at the city’s modern abattoir.

Aside from Cebu City, Talisay City also produced 1.4 tons of horse meat from 13 horses slaughtered at its abattoir during the same period.

Asked how come if so much horse meat is produced, hardly anybody knows anybody else who is eating such, Dr. Romeo Capa, the regional director of the National Meat Inspection Commission, said some meat dealers may have passed off horse meat as beef.

Capa said it is possible that unscrupulous dealers are mixing horse meat with beef to rake in bigger profits, horse meat being a lot cheaper.

Capa, however, allayed fears of eating horse meat, saying it is fit for human consumption and has health benefits, being lower in cholesterol.

But he said passing off horse meat as beef is unfair and that under the Consumers Act, the sale of a product branded as another is punishable under the law.

Capa said most horse meat stocks find their way to public markets where they are more easily disposed of when passed off as beef.

He said consumers can identify horse meat if the triangle-shaped inspection mark stamped by inspectors on the meat is still intact or visible.

Otherwise, plain ocular detection of horse meat will be difficult, he said.

Workers at the meat inspection laboratory themselves admit they do not have the capability to differentiate horse meat from beef or other meat products.

The inspection of meat products sold in public markets and supermarkets in the city is the responsibility of the city veterinary office’s medicine department.

But the department head, Dr. Alfredo Galaroza, admits his office cannot cope with the task of inspecting all public markets, supermarkets and government and private slaughterhouses due to the lack of personnel.

Of the 16 regions, only five are on record to be producing horse meat, with Central Visayas — Cebu particularly — topping the list.

Next to Cebu, Metro Manila is a far second, producing only 54 tons of horse meat from January to October.

Also in the list are Central Luzon with 20 tons, Southern Tagalog with 12 tons, and Northern Mindanao with just 110 kilos. — Freeman News Service