LGUs warned vs expired frozen meat

DAGUPAN CITY, Philippines – An agriculture group on Friday asked local governments to keep an eye on expired imported meat products that are reportedly being sold in public markets.

“We are worried about the statement of the Meat Importers and Traders Association (Mita) that frozen meat are safe to eat even if these are past the recommended date of consumption,” said Rosendo So, president of the Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (Sinag).

Sinag includes among its members the National Federation of Hog Farmers Inc.

“Does this mean that they intentionally imported expired meat products that they bought at low prices and pass these on as quality frozen meat?” he said.

So said expired meat products were bought for $1.30 (about P50) a kilogram (kg) and these are sold to consumers from P150 to P180 a kg.

“This is unfair to consumers. Frozen meat must have a label indicating the importer, the brand and the expiration date,” So said.

In a letter to Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala dated August 13, Mita president Jesus Cham quoted the United States Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service as saying that frozen perishable products “are safe indefinitely.”

“With that statement from Mita, [it is implied that] all the frozen meat products they have been importing were expired,” So said.

He said some 5.6 million kilograms of imported pork might have entered the country without going through quarantine inspections.

“Mita imports about 199 million kilograms of frozen pork every year,” So said.

These meat products are usually brought to public markets from 2 to 3 a.m. without labels and displayed for sale in meat stalls along with fresh meat of newly butchered hogs, he said.

“So, when these are confiscated by local authorities, no one comes to claim that he or she owns the frozen meat. The meat vendors are often the one penalized,” said So.

Provincial veterinarian Eric Perez, said municipal and city veterinarians, along with the National Meat Inspection Service personnel, had confiscated in the past few days expired meat products in Mangaldan town.

“Under the law, frozen meat should be labeled, with the expiry date clearly written on the labels,” said Perez in a telephone interview.

He said meat importers should be required to import meat products which are closer to the dates these were slaughtered. Gabriel Cardinoza, Inquirer Northern Luzon