Dar welcomes recall of Mekeni pork products

TAINTED BATCH A company famous for its “longganisa” and “tocino” recalled its products from the market after a batch was found positive for the African swine fever virus.

MANILA, Philippines — Agriculture Secretary William Dar welcomed move of Mekeni Food Corp., a Pampanga-based meat processor, to recall all its pork-based products after reports that a batch of its hotdog, sausage and “tocino” was found positive for the African swine fever (ASF) virus.

“We are only here to implement regulations, and if the recall is part of solving the problem, then that’s a welcome development,” Dar said.

Mekeni Food Corp. said it was taking the measure ahead of results of tests by the Bureau of Animal Industry and an independent laboratory.

“This is to ensure that we mitigate the possibility that our products inadvertently become carriers of ASF,” the company said in a statement on Saturday.

Mekeni accounts for less than 10 percent of the market for sausages and less than 5 percent for hotdogs, according to an industry source.

“However, we would like to stress that these products are safe for consumption. No less than the Department of Health and the Department of Agriculture (DA) have reiterated that ASF poses no danger to human health,” it added.

An industry source earlier told the Inquirer that the National Meat Inspection Service, a specialized regulatory agency in the DA, had recommended the recall.

Other developments

Also on Saturday, Dar said two shipping containers from China, a country affected by ASF, was apprehended earlier in the week after it was found to have misdeclared as tomato paste and vermicelli its cargo of pork, along with dumplings, Peking duck, minced vegetables and other semiprocessed food.

He said the shipment would have to undergo laboratory tests to determine whether the products were positive for ASF.

The shipment’s consignee, Binondo-based Jeniti International Trading, could be charged with violating customs laws for misdeclaration as well as the National Food Security Act for bringing in products from an ASF-positive country.

Since last year, the DA has banned the importation, distribution and sale of processed pork products from countries affected by ASF, including China, Belgium, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Hungary, North Korea, Mongolia, Poland, Romania Russia, Serbia, South Africa and Germany.

Sen. Francis Pangilinan on Saturday urged the DA and the Department of Trade and Industry to disclose the brands of processed pork products tainted with ASF and pull these out of the market.

“This is food. We should only eat safe and nourishing food,” Pangilinan said.

“Local efforts to stop the spread of the ASF such as culling of pigs would be futile if the ASF, in another form, would easily get in the country and land on our dinner table,” he added.

Total ban vs Luzon pork

In Cebu City, Presidential Assistant in the Visayas Michael Lloyd Dino had submitted a memorandum to President Rodrigo Duterte recommending his support to a total ban on pork and pork-derived products from Luzon, which was earlier imposed by governors to prevent the spread of ASF in the Western, Central and Eastern Visayas regions.

“There is a high risk of contaminating the local hog industry run by backyard farmers who augment their feeds with leftover food collected from different food service establishments,” the memorandum said.

—With reports from Krixia Subingsubing, Julie M. Aurelio, Karl R. Ocampo, Joey A. Gabieta and Connie Fernandez-Brojan