MANILA – The National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) urged the local government units (LGUs) nationwide to adopt an ordinance to ensure the safety and quality of meat products.
NMIS Executive Director Ernesto Gonzales made the appeal as the attached agency of the Department of Agriculture (DA) intensifies its enforcement of regulations governing meat and meat products inspection and hygiene.
“It seems it’s not a priority of the LGUs that is why, we are now initiating the move. We are calling a meeting in all provinces. We already submitted the letter to the mayors, governors for them to give priority to establish the local meat inspection system ordinance,” he told reporters Monday on the sidelines of the celebration of Meat Safety Consciousness Week.
Gonzales said the agency will meet with LGUs in Metro Manila and those in Visayas and Mindanao in the first half of November to discuss the development of standard for local meat inspection service (LMIS).
“We hope to be able to spark the interest of the LGUs to finally develop the LMIS. It has long been overdue, and we want to see the initial stages of the development of the standards finally take off,” he said.
Gonzales added that majority of the LGUs so far are “willing to cooperate”, as he hoped that an ordinance creating the standard for LMIS will be developed by yearend up to the first quarter of 2019.
“We have to implement it immediately, or else, we will not stop confiscating. We are very aggressive in enforcement,” he added.
This year alone, the NMIS was able to conduct 289 surveillance and monitoring activities in a number of meat markets, Gonzales said.
“Out of these surveillance and monitoring activities, the group managed to conduct strike operation 87 times which resulted into confiscation of 10,714.51 kilograms of various types of meat,” he said. (Leslie Gatpolintan/PNA)
