PAGADIAN CITY, October 16 (PIA) –- In order to ensure safe and clean meat for sale in meat shops, the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) on Friday conducted a regular and unannounced inspection in meat shops here.
The 5-man team led by NMIS-9 Regional Technical Director Dr. Arturo De Jesus Jr. made a surprise inspection in the malls particularly at Gaisano Capital Mall, People’s Plaza, and Robinson’s Supermarket in which large volume of meat are displayed and consumers used to visit daily.
“We are conducting regular and unannounced inspection in meat shops so that owners will be caught unaware while displaying their meat products in their respective establishments,’’ De Jesus explained.
“In the course of our inspection, we’ve found out violations of some meat shop owners for failure to display ‘meat and meat inspection certificate’ (MMIC) in a conspicuous place of their establishments and failure to present said MMIC to the team,” De Jesus said adding that “they instead placed the MMIC inside the folder.”
De Jesus said a business establishment or persons engaged in selling meat and meat products are required to obtain MMIC adding that it confirms that the product is suitable for consumption.
De Jesus said the MMIC should be displayed inside their establishments for the consumers to know if the meat products they would buy is fresh and comes from legitimate source. In the MMIC, the date issued by the NMIS is being indicated.
The NMIS chief urged meat shop owners to strictly follow the regulations imposed by their agency since it is not only for their benefit but for the consumers’ benefit as well.
“If they will fail to comply, the agency will be forced to recommend to the local government unit for the cancellation of their permit,” De Jesus concluded. (ALT/GCC/PIA9-Pagadian)
