What a waste of meat.
“On Sun, Mar 13, Sen. Cynthia Villar urged the Department of Agriculture and Bureau of Customs to immediately destroy around four million kilos of frozen meat left rotting at the Manila port since last year,” reports Christina Mendez in The Philippine Star.
Villar is the chairperson of the Senate committee on agriculture and food.
The report noted: “The now-abandoned meat was said to have come from the US, Canada, Belgium, and other European countries. The containers were held after the consignees – Lean Pasture Trading, Lucky Sisters Meat Trading and Jcore Enterprises – failed to present permits from the National Meat Inspection Service.”
As such, the consignees have “abandoned the meat loaded in refrigerated vans to avoid payment of demurrage and storage fees.”
Villa was quoted as saying, “The presence of 3.9 million kilos of meat at the port has caused anxiety among the public. There is no assurance that unscrupulous traders will be prevented from selling these expired meat.”
She added, “If the government is serious in the campaign to improve food safety levels, we should dispose of this rotten meat and no longer wait for the consignees to appear.”
