Centre to enforce hygiene rules in meat industry

BANGALORE: Why home-makers would like to visit malls and arcades for shopping and  send their drivers and servants to buy meat, fish and pork? It is in search of an answer to this question that has made the Union government to seriously think of ushering in cleanliness, hygiene and food safety by going in for modern abattoirs as well as create awareness among the people involved in meat industry.  The urgency for undertaking this awareness has become all the more acute with the WHO issuing guidelines to all the member countries to raise the level of hygiene in meat and related industry to international standards by enforcing the law as well as creating awareness among the stakeholders.  Giving an insight into the concept, Dr Nadeem Mohammed Fairoze, Professor and Head of the Department of Livestock Technology, Veterinary College, told Express that the Union Ministry of Food Processing has set up National Meat and Poultry Processing Board (NMPP) to create a training module for creating awareness as well as oversee the awareness programme to be taken up throughout the country. In his view, generally people do not want to see the ghastly sight of blood and gory; stench and untidiness that are common in all mutton shops and fish centres which makes the home-makers send their drivers and servants to these shops. In Karnataka, the Livestock Technology Department of the Veterinary College has taken upon itself the task of creating awareness among 40,000 and odd people who are involved in meat industry in Bangalore. “Meat industry need not necessarily mean only mutton. It can be pork, fish and chicken. The profession is often hereditary and system handed over by generations continue. But times are changing and it is necessary to create awareness about the hygiene, while processing meat and its related items,” the professor explained. Awareness is not confined only to keeping shops and establishments clean but also teaching the less-cruel way of killing animals. “Instead of killing the animals when they are alive, we can inject drugs to ensure their slow death and then after some time they can be cut,” Dr Nadeem added.