MANILA – Locally processed meat products are safe for human consumption as they do not contain materials from countries infected by the African swine fever (ASF), the Philippine Association of Meat Processors Inc. (PAMPI) assured on Monday.
The statement comes days after the Bureau of Customs (BOC) said it was closely monitoring the country’s borders to prevent the entry of canned meat products amid the ASF outbreak.
“Locally processed meat products such as canned meat and hotdogs do not contain meat materials from countries infected with African swine fever,” PAMPI said in an emailed statement.
The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) defines African swine fever as a “severe viral disease affecting domestic and wild pigs.”
“This transboundary animal disease can be spread by live or dead pigs, domestic or wild, and pork products,” said OIE.
Transmission can also occur via contaminated feed and non-living objects such as shoes, clothes, vehicles, knives, equipment due to the high environmental resistance of ASF virus.
The Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) has banned the importation of pork from Belgium, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Czech Republic, Moldova, Mongolia, South Africa, Vietnam, and Zambia.
The FDA list extended the memorandum order issued by the Department of Agriculture (DA) last September that banned the importation of pork from ASF-hit countries such as China, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine.
“Most of the ASF-infected countries do not export meat products to the Philippines,” PAMPI said in its statement on Monday.
PAMPI president Felix Tiukinhoy urged FDA Philippines to exercise restraint and be specific in its pronouncements concerning the matter.
The FDA must identify the brands and countries of origin instead of issuing general statements that are “not helpful to consumers but are prejudicial to local manufacturers,” he added. (GMA News)
