Meat from city abattoir safe, Pavia residents assured

• Source: http://panaynewsphilippines.com/2015/07/05/meat-from-city-abattoir-safe-pavia-residents-assured/
• Sunday, July 5, 2015

By MERIANNE GRACE EREÑETA (PN)

ILOILO City – Meat from hogs and cattle slaughtered at the city’s abattoir is safe for human consumption.

This is the benefit that the people of Pavia will get from the agreement between their municipality with the city government, said Ariel Castañeda, chief of the city’s Local Economic Enterprise Office (LEEO),

On Friday, the city government agreed to accommodate hog and cattle raisers of Pavia at the city’s abattoir in Barangay Tacas, Jaro district.

According to Castañeda, his office was addressing several concerns that the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) raised early this year over the slaughterhouse’s operation.

NMIS is the government body regulating abattoirs across the country.

“There are procedural concerns. The facilities will be improved, too,” Castañeda said.

The slaughterhouse failed the NMIS inspection early this year.

Aside from structural deficiencies, the lack of skill among meat inspectors was among the reasons that it failed to attain the “AA” classification.

Under Executive Order No. 137, “AA” abattoirs are those “with facilities and operational procedures sufficiently adequate that the livestock and fowls slaughtered are suitable for sale in any market, domestic or international.”

Castañeda expressed confidence that the city’s slaughterhouse can achieve that status.

The slaughterhouse is currently categorized as “A”, which means it has “facilities and operational procedures of minimum adequacy.”

Meat from “A” abattoirs are suitable for distribution and sale only within the city or municipality where the slaughterhouse is located, stated Executive Order No. 137.

Castañeda said Pavia hog and cattle raisers may start taking their animals for slaughtering at the city’s abattoir starting next month.

The arrangement is beneficial to both Pavia and the city government, he said.

While Pavia consumers will be ensured of clean and safe meat, the city’s slaughterhouse will be earning more, said Castañeda.

Pavia hog and cattle raisers will pay the appropriate fees and have to follow the slaughterhouse’s schedule, said Castañeda.

Some of the reasons that the slaughterhouse failed the regional NMIS evaluation on Feb. 6, 2015 were insufficient water supply, nonfunctional hand-washing facilities, accumulation of dirt on walls and tanks, odorous comfort rooms, clogged drainage, and presence of cobwebs, among others.

Some of the meat inspectors had not passed the NMIS test, too, according to Councilor Rodel Fullon-Agado, chairperson of the Sangguniang Panlungsod’s committee on markets and slaughterhouse, in a previous interview.