Health inspector issues meat warning
Published:Thursday | December 24, 2020 | 12:18 AMRasbert Turner/Gleaner Writer
St Catherine Chief Public Health Inspector Grayson Hutchinson is warning the public to be vigilant when purchasing meats, so they are not sold products from unregistered slaughterhouses.
He said that, despite the parish having 48 registered slaughterhouses and 140 licensed butchers, unscrupulous individuals were circumventing the system and putting meat not passed by health inspectors on the market.
“We (health inspectors) have been doing a rigorous market surveillance throughout the parish, and will continue. We must inform the consumers to buy from reputable sources such as the meat markets, the meat sections of reputable businesses,” Hutchinson said.
“The meats, when properly inspected, will be branded with the inspector of health’s stamp. The consumer best buy is from these sources as, whenever an animal is slaughtered, it should be tested to see that it is fit and proper for human consumption,” he stressed.
Hutchinson said that, where his team finds breaches or contaminated meats on the market, they are confiscated and destroyed, warning that persons can be prosecuted under the Public Health Act for not following the rules.
Despite the warning, a number of farmers told The Gleaner that, while they appreciated the role of the official channels, they have to “help themselves” to survive.
“ Yes, it is true that we need to call the inspector dem, but, suppose mi a sell 100 chicken? Mi can’t wait, so mi affi pluck dem myself, as survival mi a deal wid, but mi understand.” a female farmer said.
Orgil Moffat told The Gleaner that, with goat meat at $1,000 per pound, his decision to wait to get a butcher to take his animals to a slaughterhouse had cost him dearly.
“Last week, dem tief five of my [rams] and left mi pon mi face,” he said. “Wait mi did a wait pon di butcher fi go slaughterhouse, although mi coulda kill dem myself. Bwoy, it rough.”