Food Safety
Philippines: Customs on the look out for banned meat 03 Apr 2009
Enforcement agents of the Bureau of Customs will be on the look out for imported cattle and meat products from Taiwan and Lebanon.
This comes following the reported outbreak of foot and mouth disease in the countries.
Standard procedure
Jairus Paguntalan, Intelligence and Enforcement Group (IEG) acting chief said that it is part of the Bureau’s standard operating procedure to have any memorandum from any government agency circulate and to issue their own memorandum to ensure that their personnel is aware of the situation, especially if it concerns the health and safety of the Filipino consumers.
Jairus Paguntalan, Intelligence and Enforcement Group (IEG) acting chief said that it is part of the Bureau’s standard operating procedure to have any memorandum from any government agency circulate and to issue their own memorandum to ensure that their personnel is aware of the situation, especially if it concerns the health and safety of the Filipino consumers.
“This is a year round activity, we are monitoring all shipments but we are especially wary of the entry of any poultry products contaminated by bird flu and also, for meat - for those contaminated by foot and mouth disease,” he said.
Immediate alert
According to Martinez, refrigerated containers which have such goods are also required to have x-ray scanning and 100% examination in accredited cold storage facilities of the National Meat Inspection Services (NMIS). Also in compliance to the ban order, Martinez said that meat shipments that are coming in from the two countries will immediately be placed on alert, until such time clearance is granted by the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI).
According to Martinez, refrigerated containers which have such goods are also required to have x-ray scanning and 100% examination in accredited cold storage facilities of the National Meat Inspection Services (NMIS). Also in compliance to the ban order, Martinez said that meat shipments that are coming in from the two countries will immediately be placed on alert, until such time clearance is granted by the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI).
The Department of Agriculture (DA) has ordered a ban on the import of cattle and other animals from after the World Animal Health Organization (WAHO) announed the outbreak in Taiwan and Lebanon.
Johnny Martinez Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS) OIC at the Port of Manila has stated that even without the ban, there is a lot of caution exercised against the entry of contaminated food products.
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