Consumers Urged to Purchase Meat and Animal By-Products From Reputable Sources

Veterinary Public Health Inspector for St. Thomas, Nardia Nembhard, is urging consumers to purchase meat and other animal byproducts from reputable sources.

This reminder comes against the background of Sunday’s (June 7) observance of World Food Safety Day under the theme: ‘From Burden to Solution: Safe Food Everywhere’.

Ms. Nembhard told JIS News that consumers have a responsibility to protect themselves by ensuring the meat they purchase bears the government’s stamp of approval, confirming it has been inspected and passed by a public health inspector.

“Most times we have consumers who, more or less, do not know that you should have your meat… procured from an approved slaughter place… and inspected and passed by a public health inspector. We do realise that this is a challenge that is ongoing where consumers think that… ‘oh, my grandfather, back in the day, used to slaughter the pig under the tree… so it is normal and okay to do the same now’. We always want consumers purchasing meat from reputable sources and ensuring that that meat has the government stamp of approval,” she said.

According to the Public Health Act Meat Inspection Regulations of 1989, a specific stamp is mandated for use following the inspection and approval of meat.

Ms. Nembhard noted that, in recent times, each stamp has been assigned a unique identification number.

“It depends on which parish you are in. I’m in St Thomas… so my parish is C. So it would read C and my specific registration number. That stamp should be on every pound of meat that you purchase. If consumers have doubt, it is important that they do ask. They are allowed to ask the supplier what their source is,” she said.

While meat is often the primary focus of food safety warnings, all foods of animal origin should be carefully monitored.

Ms. Nembhard emphasised that this is especially important in the case of raw milk and eggs.

“Some people still believe that they can milk the cow and ‘scald’ the milk. So we encourage consumers to also ensure that they are purchasing processed milk from reputable sources as well. The same thing applies for table eggs. We do encourage consumers to purchase eggs from reputable sources. They’re not supposed to use cracked eggs in the preparation of food, based on the potentially hazardous component of raw eggs,” she said.