The Mandaue City Veterinary Office confiscated about 700 kilos of chicken meat from a vendor at the city’s public market on Monday morning, March 4, 2019. CDN Digital photo | Rosalie Abatayo
MANDAUE CITY, Cebu — Meat Inspection Officers of the Mandaue City Veterinary Office intercepted and confiscated on Monday morning, March 4, 2019, over 800 kilos of chicken meat that has no proper chicken meat inspection certificate (MIC).
The confiscated “hot” meat include 497 kilos or 224 pieces of whole dressed chicken, 122 kilos of various chicken meat parts, and 218 kilos of chicken intestines and giblets.
Hot meat is the term used to refer to the meat of a food animal that was slaughtered by a non-accredited slaughterhouse and has not undergone proper meat inspection.
Dr. Karen Mirelles, Meat Control Officer of the MCVO, said the meat was confiscated after its owner failed to present a valid MIC when it was inspected by MCVO personnel at the drop off point in the Mandaue City Cultural and Sports Complex grounds beside the new public market.
“Duna siyay gipresent nga MIC pero lahi nga items ang nakabutang kung i-compare sa naabot nga meat. Lahi pod ang sakyanan nga naabot ug sa gideclare sa MIC,” Mirelles told CDN Digital.
Mirelles explained that without a valid MIC, the meat might have been mishandled and mixed with the ones that were not actually subjected to the standard meat inspection in an accredited poultry processing plant.
“If we do business, we have to be responsible sa atong consumers and one of the responsibilities is the handling of meat and if it is already mishandled like dili mao ang gibutangan or hugaw ang gibutangan, that is already mishandling. So we have to confiscate it,” Mirelles told CDN Digital in an interview
The confiscated meat, which values at around P50,000 to P70,000, were brought to the closed city-owned slaughterhouse in Barangay Labogon, where it will be buried.
Mirelles said the MCVO has already issued a final written warning against the owner of the meat, whom she described as habitually violating the protocols in meat handling. /bmjo