Officials confiscate Chinese meat imports

Ikram Putra
The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

At least 58 canned meat products imported from China were confiscated Wednesday by health officials who suspected they contained the bacteria that causes foot and mouth disease in livestock.

The discovery was made in a supermarket in Menteng, Central Jakarta, as part of a government initiative to monitor the safety of food products packed in gift parcels for the Idul Fitri holiday.

Head of the Central Jakarta health office, Evi Zelfino, said the Food and Drugs Monitoring Agency laboratory was still examining the imported canned meat.

"We suspect it is an unhealthy product because all of the cans have exactly the same trade registration number but with different producer names," Evi was quoted as saying by Antara.

She said she had asked the supermarket manager to reregister the imported canned meat products to the food monitoring agency.

The municipality's trade office also searched retail markets and supermarkets for expired food products.

"We have two operations ... the open one involves uniformed officials, while the closed one is being conducted by undercover officials to maintain secrecy," Central Jakarta trade office head Sukirno said Wednesday.

Meanwhile in Depok, south of Jakarta, officials from the Depok Agriculture Agency found five needles and one jerrican containing formaldehyde, believed to have been used by traders at Kemiri market to preserve chicken meat.

Official Tubagus Ismail said the agency did not have the authority to punish traders who were using the preservative, as it was beyond its jurisdiction.

"We were only able to seize the needles and formaldehyde and warn the traders not to use the chemical again," he said Wednesday.

Chicken traders at the traditional market, located behind Depok Mall, have long been suspected of using formaldehyde to preserve chicken meat. They have also been suspected of injecting water into chicken carcasses to make them weigh more.

The Food and Drug Monitoring Agency has banned the use of formaldehyde, widely used to preserve dead bodies, in food products but still tolerates the use of formaldehyde – in small doses – in toothpaste, soap and shampoo.