BACOLOD City – Livestock markets must make sure that they are “hygienically handling” slaughtered meat, according to the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP).
The SP passed a resolution last week directing the City Administrator’s Office, the City Health Office and the City Legal Office-Enforcement Team to check if markets in Bacolod follow Department of Agriculture’s (DA) Administrative Order No. 5 series of 2012.
The order provides the rules and regulations on hygienic handling of newly slaughtered meat.
Resolution proponent Councilor Bartolome Orola said such order is in line with Republic Act 9296, or the Meat Inspection Code of the Philippines.
The law aims to assure the good quality and wholesomeness of meat and meat products in the country.
Orola also cited the Consumer Act of the Philippines, which requires the Department of Agriculture to provide safety and quality standards for consumer products.
This is to protect the public against food-borne diseases, he added.
DA’s Administrative Order No. 5 states that meat handlers – or those involved in the business of providing, delivering and/or selling meat and meat products – must be “responsible for the safety and quality of the meat and meat products which they trade, slaughter, prepare, cut, process, pre-package, chill, transport, sell, or handle.”
Meat and meat products “shall be displayed at a cool and dry part of the market where the air humidity is low or as low as naturally achievable,” the order added.
They must also be in a “hanging position to allow circulation of air.”
If the meat or meat products are not hanging, handlers must make sure that they are not stacked on top of each other.
The meat cutting area must always be under good sanitary conditions, the order stated.
Cutting tools like knives, chopping board, and sharpener, among others, must at all times be in good sanitary conditions, too.
Buyers must also avoid “unnecessarily” touching meat and meat products. Handlers must provide them with clean tongs or similar tools to minimize contamination.
Handlers must also see to it that meat wrapping materials do not contain contaminants, the order added.
Printed wrapping materials like newspaper must not be used and used wrapping materials must not be re-used, it also said.
According to Orola, there is a need to heighten the awareness of meat traders, meat market owners, meat vendors, and consumers on the conditions for safe handling of meat and meat products./PN
