Meat group slams DA official on smuggled pork

A meat processors group assailed yesterday an agriculture official for issuing "exaggerated" advisory, which, they said, strongly affect the country’s meat processing industry.

In a letter to Agriculture Secretary Leonardo Montemayor, the Philippine Association of Meat Processors, Inc. (PAMPI) branded the statement of National Meat Inspection Commission chief Efren Nuestro as "irresponsible and malicious."

The reaction came after Nuestro warned the Filipino people to avoid purchase and consumption of processed meat products, specifically hotdogs, hams and bacons, over a national TV news program last Nov. 5.

PAMPI executive director Francisco Buencamino wrote that Nuestro seemingly made reference to all branded products because of a foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) alert on China pork meat products that were released in the market by the Bureau of Customs.

"We find the statement of Mr. Nuestro to be irresponsible and malicious," PAMPI said in the letter to the DA chief.

PAMPI explained that the Philippines has no capability to detect the presence of FMD in fresh and frozen meats so there can be no validation of its presence in the meat products referred to.

Veterinary experts also rule that the FMD virus is terminated with cooking or low temperature freezing.

The media reported that at least four containers of some 100,000 kilos of pork worth P15 million from China entered the country last Oct. 11 and Nov. 2. Two of the containers are in custody of the Bureau of Customs. The other two containers, according to Nuestro in a Nov. 8 news item, have found their way into the factories of meat traders in Pampanga.