August 18, 2014

Philippines agricultural authority acts against sales of expired meat

The Philippines' Department of Agriculture (DA) is working with local authorities to crack down on the sales of imported meat which have exceeded expiration dates.

According to Agriculture Undersecretary, Jose Reaño, the DA-supervised National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) has been tasked to conduct spot inspections of warehouses or cold storage facilities used by importing companies.

"NMIS and LGUs will also intensify their campaign against illegal meat, this time by thoroughly checking the expiry dates of meat products aside from other measures like looking for the proper marks and visual signs of freshness," Reaño said.

He added that violators will have their products confiscated and might face legal actions.

"We intend to ensure that meat products sold in the country are not only fit for human consumption, but also contain the correct expiry dates even in frozen states," he said.

These moves come in the wake of warnings from the Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (Sinag), a group of agribusiness operators, farmers and party-list groups, about expired imported meat being sold in local markets. Sinag's chair, Rosendo So, said that 5.6 million kilogrammes of imported pork "did not pass quarantine inspection (as they) are expired or of questionable origin."

Data from the Bureau of Customs (BOC) show that the agency released 121.6 million kilogrammes of imported pork during the first half of 2014 while data from the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) show that 116 million kilogrammes passed through quarantine inspections.

Regarding the matter, Reaño said he could not discount the possibility of certain cargos failing to undergo inspection by BAI quarantine officers upon arrival in Philippine ports.

He added that BAI has started a review of all documents pertinent to meat importation to check the discrepancy of the agency's data against those of BOC.