City Info
Lagos State Govt Enacts Law To Promote Meat Hygiene
The Lagos State government has announced a new development to enhanced a more hygienic meat in Lagos market.
The new development requires meat sellers to henceforth provide a ‘veterinary health certificate for the trade of meat’ to the inspecting veterinary personnel in the state Ministry of Agriculture.
The state Commissioner for Agriculture, Prince Gbolahan Lawal, made the announcement of the new development on Sunday.
Lawal noted that the new development was part of the new strategies the government was adopting aimed at sanitising the meat value chain. Adding that the policy was in conformity with Section 4, Cap M3, Meat Inspection Law of Lagos State and the Fourth Schedule (Regulation 33) of the Law.
Lawal said “Veterinary divisional heads have also been mandated to identify meat vending outlets that are major distributors and retailers of meat within their respective divisions.
“They are to issue letters of a notice containing a moratorium on the need for them to change their meat supply protocol to reflect the new policy.
“We have mandated our veterinary officers to do a periodic and systematic inspection of these facilities within their jurisdictions.
He added “they must ensure that meats emanating from their divisions, which must come from mechanised facilities, are issued the veterinary health certificate for the trade of meat.”
Lawal however cautioned inspection officials not to undermine the standard layout for the inspection.
He urged food vendors not to purchase meat that have not gone through the necessary inspections, adding that any vendor found culpable would be prosecuted accordingly.
Lawal said “Any food vendor who breaches this code by purchasing meat that was not duly inspected or that did not come with the legal certificates will be guilty of an offence and his/her facility will be liable to be shut down.”
He further noted that henceforth meat slaughtering for the purpose of public consumption would be refered to mechanised facilities.
“It is our hope that strict adherence by the concerned stakeholders and implementation by our veterinary officers of this policy will drive slaughtering activities towards more hygienic facilities”, Lawal said.
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