City Veterinarian Brigit Piok assured Baguio residents fish and meat products they buy from the Baguio City Public Market are safe for consumption.
During a meeting of city managers on July 6, Piok guaranteed her office is doing its best to ensure health and safety of Baguio consumers by conducting regular inspections at the market.
She said 74 individuals had been accosted for violating various meat inspection laws and regulations during the first half of 2020 alone. They were either penalized with seven-day suspensions, fined, or made to surrender meat products for proper disposal.
The City Veterinary and Agriculture Office, which Piok heads, is part of the composite meat market monitoring task force created under Executive Order 54, s. 2020 chaired by Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong. It conducts inspections, enforcement of meat inspection laws and regulations, accosts or recommends businesses found in violation of laws and ordinances, and formulates strategies to ensure food safety.
“Our office is in charge of making sure our public market, our slaughterhouses and food processing establishments are clean. We make sure our constituents and other consumers are protected from animal-borne diseases or illnesses,” Piok said.
To guarantee market-goers get food fit for human consumption, she said they check the veterinarian’s certificate and shipping permits; make sure the volume or head-count indicated in the certificate and permits tally with the actual number of animals, fish, or meat products; and check on the health of the transported animals, fish, or meat products.
Products are rejected if the products reflected in the certificate and permits are not the same; if it is live, the shipper is told to either return it to the source if the same is healthy; or condemn and dispose it if it is not fit for human consumption. If processed, the goods are confiscated condemned, and disposed. – Gaby Keith
April 26, 2024
