Meat Here Safe
By Sharmilpal Kaur
Singapore, 2 March 2001 -- MAD-COW disease, foot-and-mouth disease, Nipah virus - these animal-disease scares are enough to make people here think seriously about giving up meat.
But there is no need to shy away from any food that does not grow on plants.
Meat here is safe, according to the Agri-food and Veterinary Authority (AVA).
And Singaporeans do eat a lot of meat.
More than 45 million live chickens and 82,850 tonnes of chicken meat were imported last year.
Singapore also imported 318,000 pigs and 52,000 tonnes of pork.
Despite the spread of mad-cow disease to humans in Europe, people here still consumed 14,091 tonnes of beef last year.
Mad-cow disease can cause a fatal brain-wasting illness in humans.
The Nipah virus can spread from pigs to humans and cause inflammation of the brain. It killed an abattoir worker here and more than 100 pig farmers in Malaysia in 1999.
AVA is responsible for making sure that Singapore's supply of meat, meat products, fish, fresh fruits and vegetables is safe for consumption.
Mr Goh Shih Yong, the AVA's head of public affairs, said: 'Singapore's primary foods are screened systematically so that any food-borne hazards are removed at source before they have a chance to be distributed throughout our food chain.'
This is why the AVA took swift action to ban pork from Taiwan and Britain after foot-and-mouth disease broke out among cattle in those places.
It banned pork from Malaysia after a Nipah virus outbreak there in 1999.
It also banned beef from Britain in 1996 after mad-cow disease broke out there. These bans remain in place.
But even foods from 'safe' sources are subjected to a wide range of laboratory checks for such things as antibiotics, growth-promoting stuff, hormones and pesticide residues.
Mr Goh said these checks are necessary.
'That is the only way to ensure safety. If you slacken, then things will slip in.'
Source: The Straitstimes Interactive, Singapore
|
Login | Sign Up
Home
