Poor quality chicken poses flu threat

Dead chickens confiscated from a private supplier near Shoghi in Shimla. 

Shimla, February 4

Meat consumers in the city are under constant fear of contracting bird flu as the Health, Food Safety Standard (FSS) Regulatory Authority, municipal bodies and Animal Husbandry Department are giving a free hand to private suppliers.

The consumers have accused the departments concerned of “playing with their health by supplying cheap and poor quality chicken to make a fast buck”.

The food safety and regulatory bodies are responsible for ensuring the supply of quality chicken and meat in the state as Himachal has put it in the essential commodities list.

But more than 60 per cent of chicken is routed through private suppliers in the capital city and finds its way to Rohru, Rampur, Jubbal-Kotkhai, Chopal, Nerwa and Reckong Peo as far as Kaza and Sangla without the mandatory testing and checking as under the Food Safety and Standards (FSS) Act, the consumers rue.

Private suppliers throw all norms to the wind as they slaughter animals and get certificates from some unauthorised veterinarian, say insiders of the trade.

“Private suppliers transport meat in pick-up vans, packed in unhealthy gunny bags instead of chilled vans,” revealed sources which conducted surprise checks recently.

Birds are imported by both the MC and private suppliers from Punjab and Haryana. These are rarely culled, even for the mandatory three bacterial infection, and chemical sprays are used to de-feather the birds, consumers charge.

The three regulatory bodies are engaged in a blame game as far as regulation of chicken and poultry trade is concerned. Luckily, no case of avian flu has been reported from the state so far.

Even the MC has failed to check the illegal supply of chicken in the city as shopkeepers procure “cheap and poor quality and even dead chicken” from private suppliers. The chicken supplied through the MC slaughterhouse costs about 15 to 20 per cent more so shopkeepers mixe both good and bad quality chicken, sources say.

On an average, 1,700 to 3,000 birds are slaughtered in the MC-run modern slaughterhouse every day. “As per rough estimates, private suppliers are selling about 2,000 birds every day and sales are undervalued to evade tax,” sources said.

Even chicken and meat traders sell meat and broilers without proper testing. “The officer responsible for regulation hates to visit the slaughterhouse as it stinks and he is a pure vegetarian,” revealed field staff.

The state government had created a separate Directorate of Health Safety and Regulation in 2009. It is responsible for implementing the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954, and Rules 1955 and Food Safety Standard Act, 2006 (Act No. 34 of 2006).

Dr Surekha Chopra, officer on special duty, FSS, said “It is the responsibility of the district administration and the MC to check slaughterhouses, be they private or government.”

MC veterinary officer Dr Arun Sirkeck claims that they cull 10 to 20 birds every day at the modern slaughterhouse and make surprise checks at private slaughterhouses as well. “We are seeking coordination with the FSS authority and Animal Husbandry Department, as mandated under the FSS Act, but have failed so far,” he added.