• CHERYL G. CRUZ
To ensure that all poultry businesses and activities in Bacolod City are compliant with sanitation and environmental rules, the Sangguniang Panlungsod approved on third and final reading the Poultry Dressing and Processing Plants Compliance Ordinance Feb. 4.
The ordinance, authored by councilors Wilson Gamboa Jr. and Homer Bais, seeks the establishment of poultry slaughtering centers, or abattoirs primarily dealing in poultry meat.
“Poultry dressing and processing plants play a vital role in the city’s food supply chain, but also pose potential risks to public health, environmental safety, and sanitation if not regulated properly,” the proponent-councilors stressed.
The ordinance seeks to ensure that all poultry businesses and activities in Bacolod are compliant with existing laws and regulations; protect public health and safety, particularly by minimizing, if not eliminating, obnoxious odor, fly and mosquito infestations, and water pollution; and impose appropriate cleanliness and capacitate poultry dressing and processing plants for waste management, among others.
“Slaughtering, bleeding, eviscerating, and cleaning of food animals in places other than duly registered abattoirs and poultry slaughtering centers shall be deemed illegal,” Section 12 of the ordinance states.
All non-edible by-products from dressing and processing of poultry plants, such as blood, visceral contents, hairs, feathers, beak, and claws, are waste products and should be kept in appropriately marked and sealed containers before being submitted for collection by the city waste management personnel, Section 14 said. “All meat establishments are required to have an appropriate waste receptacle within their establishments.”
Section 10 also provides that the City Veterinary Office Meat Inspection Section shall maintain an accurate and regularly updated registry of all meat establishments, meat brokers, butchers, and meat handlers in accordance with the memorandum circular of the National Meat Inspection Service requiring the registry of meat establishments.
Those found slaughtering poultry in unauthorized places shall be issued a cease-and-desist order for the first offense; confiscation of all meat products, suspension of business permit to operate for three months, and a fine of P1,000 for the second offense; and immediate closure of the establishment, a fine of P1,000 to P3,000 for the broker and all handlers involved and/or imprisonment of one to five days, upon discretion of the court, for third and succeeding violations.
Corresponding penalties also await violators of other provisions of the ordinance that shall take effect six months after its approval to give ample time for affected establishments and entities. | CGC
