By Perla Lena/PNA
ILOILO CITY – Starting March this year, the Local Economic Enterprise Office (LEEO) of the city government here will conduct inspection of lechon (roast pig) stalls, wet markets and commercial establishments to ensure compliance with standards on meat safety and sanitation and prevent sale of hot meat.
“After conducting meat sanitation and safety seminars, it’s now time to do the inspection. Along with that is the imposition of fines if they failed to comply with the standards in terms of display, storage and slaughter,” said LEE Officer Jose Ariel Castañeda in an interview, Tuesday.
He added that he met with lechon vendors last week, the first of the series of meetings, because “most of them, if not all” do not bring their hogs to the slaughterhouse because they have their own slaughtering area.
Castañeda said that they will be deploying meat inspectors to look into the condition of livestock before slaughtering. If found to be compliant, then they will be issued meat inspection certificates.
Among the conditions to be checked are the cleanliness of the slaughtering and display area and whether meat is kept in proper storage temperature. The place where food is cooked must be clean and free from possible contaminants.
The inspection is also one way of determining whether or not the number of hogs that they declare daily is accurate so as not to rob the city of appropriate fees, Castañeda added.
“We can confiscate the hogs and recommend for the closure or cancellation of their business permit. On top of that, we can also fine them based on the Meat Safety Act,” he said.
He said there were inspections conducted before but not as rigid starting next month.
Castañeda said the city slaughterhouse is not yet accredited with the National Meat Inspection Service, so they are compensating for it by conducting their own inspection.
The LEEO head believed there are hogs that are being slaughtered outside of the slaughterhouse because on the average, it only accommodates 150-170 heads out of its 500-daily capacity.
Aside from lechon stalls and wet markets, inspectors will also check on supermarkets selling meat products.
“We were instructed by the Department of Agriculture to include malls,” Castañeda said, citing that daily, meat products coming in from outside of the city and sold in commercial areas total around two tons.
Castañeda hopes the office of City Mayor Jose Espinosa III will soon come up with an Executive Order (EO) creating the Task Force Hot Meat so they can start with the inspection.
