THE Local Economic Enterprise Office (LEEO) is bringing the intensified campaign against “hot meat” to lechon stalls, wet markets, and even malls in Iloilo City.
Establishments and vendors that cannot comply with the basic guidelines and meat safety standards will be fined, apprehended, or recommended for the closure or cancellation of business permits, according to LEEO head Jose Ariel D. Castañeda.
“During the inspection we will be imposing fines if they do not comply with the basic guidelines and standards (on the) Meat Safety Act,” he stressed.
Under the guidelines, Mr. Castañeda said all vendors and commercial establishments must maintain a clean and sanitary area for the slaughtering of the animals.
“(First), as far as slaughtering it should be preferably (in the) slaughterhouse, otherwise it must be slaughtered in a sanitary area,” he said.
Mr. Castañeda said meat should also be properly stored and displayed in clean and sanitary area, “Meat should be stored in the clean area with appropriate temperature and the display area and cooking area must be sanitary to avoid contamination,” he said.
While all meat sold in the market should be slaughtered in the City abattoir, backyard slaughtering will be allowed provided that they secure a health inspection certificate.
“What we do we is we deploy our meat inspector to monitor the conditions of their ihawan, and we also charge them with post-mortem and anti-mortem fees as part of the inspection fee,” he said.
Aside from lechon stalls, Mr. Castañeda said random inspections will be targeting talipapas and even mall supermarkets.
“Target is talipapa and the Department of Agriculture (DA) told us to include malls in the inspection,” he said.
Mr. Castañeda added that around two tons of meat from other provinces are sold in commercial areas in the city daily.
“Usually the meat coming from the city and being sold in the commercial areas are not necessarily from foreign countries but from other provinces and we really don’t know if all of these meat suppl(iers) have secured health inspection certificates,” he lamented.
According to Mr. Castañeda, they are still waiting for an executive order (EO) to be issued by the mayor to reactivate the Task Force Hot Meat in the city.
He added that the intensified campaign will ensure that proper taxes and fees are paid by vendors and establishments. — Emme Rose Santiagudo
