CAP: Don’t take horse meat scare lightly

The Consumers Association of Penang wants a central food clearance agency to test all imported food items.

GEORGE TOWN: The Consumer Association of Penang (CAP) has called on the government to set up a central food clearance agency to screen and test all imported food items before being allowed to be sold in the country.

Following the horse meat scandal currently rocking Europe , CAP president SM Mohamed Idris said autioned that Malaysians cannot afford to take the issue lightly.

“All imported food, especially meat items, must undergo stringent check and tests before being sold in our country.

“The government should set up the agency immediately,” he said in a statement here yesterday.

He said the ministries of agriculture, health, and domestic trade, consumerism and cooperatives should work closely and monitor all imported meat products including fresh, processed or canned.

He said all meat products should be tested to allay fears of contamination and the results of the tests should be made public.

Idris also called on public to refrain from eating meat products such as burgers, salami, sausages and canned meat until the authorities can guarantee that the food items were free from all forms of contamination.

The horse meat scare erupted in Europe this month when authorities discovered horse DNA in meat products labelled as 100% beef.

The products were allegedly sold in Sweden, the United Kingdom and France.

Authorities in those countries have launched investigations.

This week, French meat wholesaler, Spanghero, has been identified as the main culprit in Europe’s spreading horse meat scandal.

French authorities have suspended the company trading activities, declaring that officials at Spanghero knowingly mislabelled and passed off cheap horse meat as beef for frozen food sold around the continent.

British police have also arrested three men on suspicion of fraud at two meat plants inspected earlier this week by the UK’s Food Standards Agency.