Post abattoir inspectors from the Department of Veterinary Medicine and Fisheries (DVMF) in Cebu City already remove banned meat products from grocery store shelves. / DVMF photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines – Grocery stores in Cebu City are now free of banned meat products.
Dr. Alice Utlang, head of the Department of Veterinary Medicine and Fisheries (DVMF), said they ordered the recall of a total of 2, 032 cans of imported meat products from the shelves of 25 grocery stores in the city following a series of inspections which started during the last week of May.
Items recalled included canned Maling, stewed pork and Great Wall ham.
“All displayed canned goods are locally made (as) reported by our post abattoir inspectors,” Utlang said in a Facebook post at around 1 p.m. today, June 8, 2019.
Read More: DVMF removes banned Maling products from Cebu City supermarket shelves
Utlang said they started their inspection of supermarket shelves in the city last year and shortly after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ordered a ban on meat products manufactured in countries with reported cases of African swine fever starting on August 18, 2018.
But post abattoir inspectors from DVMF did not find any banned meat products during their earlier inspection. They started to order the recall of banned meat products during inspections they made starting on May 29, 2019.