January 25, 2011

 

Contaminated meat found in Philippine city market

 

 

One of the stalls at the Mandaue City wet market has been found to have sold meat products contaminated with bacteria and are thus unfit for human consumption, a private laboratory said.

 

Results of the laboratory tests conducted on the meat products last January 19 showed that the contamination of aerobic platelet count (APC) and the Eschericha coli (E. coli) bacteria were beyond the acceptable level.

 

Based on the microanalysis report from the laboratory, the APC contamination was "too numerous to count" while the E. coli level was beyond the acceptable level.

 

The laboratory, which operates in Maguikay, Mandaue City is accredited to test imported and local meat products by the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) and the Department of Science and Technology.

 

However, the frozen meat from the same stall passed the standards.

 

A laboratory analyst who requested for anonymity said the warm meat sample had a large number of aerobic bacteria and E. coli.

 

She said the warm meat had "temperature abuse" since it should be stored below five degrees Celsius and more than 63 degrees Celsius.

 

The meat should only be stored for a maximum of four hours in an exposed area.

 

"If there is a presence of these bacteria, the product is not fit for human consumption," the analyst said.

 

However, the analyst admitted that their findings from the one stall were not enough to conclude that most of the stalls in Mandaue sell contaminated meat.

 

"We still need more samples," she said.

 

But Junjie Cesar Mercadal, Mandaue City Market Administrator said they are sure of the sanitation of their meat products, including warm meat. "We have no knowledge of that problem, that's a wrong report," Mercadal said, referring to the laboratory findings.

 

He said that possible contamination of the warm meat could be due to the handling by retailers who do not properly store their products and expose them for longer hours. "But our slaughterhouses are accredited by the city health office and we always monitor it," Mercadal said.

 

He said the Mandaue City Veterinary Office also has eight personnel who check the sanitation of products in the wet market.

 

However, he added they had no plans yet to conduct their own tests since they don't have laboratory facilities.