LAGOS:
Lagos to sanitise Meat Sale
by Daniel Essiet
The Lagos State government has adopted new measures to sanitise the red meat value chain for consumers’ safety.

The Commissioner for Agriculture, Prince Gbolahan Lawal disclosed this in Lagos when he met with presidents, secretaries and members of the Board of Trustees of the Butchers Association in the state.

He said the main objective of the sanitation exercise in the red meat value chain is to provide wholesome and hygienically processed beef for the populace as well as boosting beef processing to international standards.
“A 21st Century Lagos wants to raise the standard of slaughtering, processing and marketing of red meat in the state.

The purpose is to ensure the safety and health of the populace by ensuring that only certified animals are slaughtered and wholesome beef is available in our markets. This will also boost international recognition of beef from the state, thus opening up an export portal which will be a source of forex, This is what Lagos is pushing for, a conducive and hygienic environment in the red meat value chain,” the commissioner observed.

Approved slaughter houses and abattoirs will now be linked to the markets being supplied through the EKO refrigerated meat vans. Abattoirs supplying various markets will be identified and classified using the meat vans such that butchers in such abattoirs are not only identified but linked to the market they supply with the use of a color tag/code.

The commissioner explained that henceforth butchers would be issued veterinary meat hygiene certificates after inspection of carcass by veterinary officers, and certificates and coloured or coded tags for their respective vendors.

Butchers or vendors with certificates and tags would be expected to load the products into coded meat vans en route to their specified markets.
“The proposed flow of activity is to ensure that only certified carcasses leave the approved abattoir. The products are tagged and traceable to butchers/vendors and markets by use of coded EKO meat vans.

This strategy will prevent street hawking of beef and sale of beef from illegal abattoirs as coded markets will be made public and the populace would be advised to only purchase from same,” he noted.

Lawal noted that a monitoring team comprising officials of the Ministries of Health, Environment and Water Resources, Special Duties and Inter Governmental Relations, Local Governments and Local Council Development Areas as well as the monitoring, enforcement and compliance unit of Ministry of Agriculture such as veterinary microbiologists and pathologists has since been constituted in order to ensure the effective implementation of the reforms.

The Commissioner further highlighted the need for the standardization of abattoirs activities in the state such that all the approved abattoirs are not only functional, hygienic and conducive for slaughtering activities but strictly adhere to the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

“There must be continuous availability of clean water supply and there must be prompt disposal of waste from the abattoirs. Any person in possession of beef for sale without our certificate will have such products confiscated and the person prosecuted,” Lawal said.