Meat eaters are at the risk of contracting diseases like tuberculosis, typhoid and salmonellosis, according to the health experts. The presence of bacteria and E. coli, a kind of germ, tend to be high in the meats sold in the Valley. [break]
“Meat is the best source for bacteria to flourish,” says Dr Mukul Upadhaya, Veterinary Public health Office. “Their presence is high in unhygienic and dirty meat and consumption of such meat can cause various kinds of diseases,” adds Upadhaya.
In the context of the Kathmandu Valley, the workers at meat shops don´t wear apron and gloves, which are the basic requirements of a meat seller. Only a handful of butcher shops maintain cleanliness inside and outside of their shops.
The conditions of large slaughterhouses were found even worse, many of which do not even meet the basic standards set by the Nepal government.
Most butcher shops in the capital sell meat in the open and many of them do not have deep fridges, according to an inspection report prepared by Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) in collaboration with Nepal Veterinary Association, Department of Food Technology and Quality Control (DFTQC) and District Veterinary Office.
“Those who are selling unhygienic food must be punished as nobody has the right to play with other people´s life,” says Pramod Koirala, spokesperson at DFTQC.
Use of impure water at the butcher shops is also contributing to make the meats more unhygienic. Another reason is that meat traders slaughter unhealthy animals because they are less costly than the healthy ones. They bring such animals from outside the Valley.
“The government should ban the import of such animals from outside the Valley,” says Upadhaya.
According to the standard set by the government in the Local Governance Act, 2055, butcher shops should provide hygienic meat; a slaughter house must have 254.32 square meters space and tile and marble flooring and so on. But only few butcher shops fulfill those requirements, according to KMC.
“We are trying to shut the meat shops that are providing unhygienic meats to consumers,” says Dr Dr Baburam Gautam, chief of the Health Department at KMC. “If the shops fail to maintain the standards, they´d be closed,” shares Gautam.
Consumers, too, are responsible for the growth of such meat shops as they continue to buy meat from such shops ignoring the problems that unhygienic meat can cause, according to the health experts. Most people think fresh meat is beneficial but they are wrong, say doctors. Fresh meats are not edible because they contain high number of bacteria. The fresh meat must be kept in a cold place for 12 to 24 hours before they can be consumed.
“But here people always look for fresh meat which is harmful,” says Upadhaya.
But despite consuming fresh and unhygienic meat, very few people suffer from bad health. The major reason behind it is the cooking process. People cook meat in pressure cooker, which kills half of the germs but then it also spoil half of the protein content.
“As a result, people are neither suffering from any disease nor getting proteins,” shares Upadhaya.
It is high time that we solve the problem of unhygienic meat as it can cause various health hazards to the people of the Kathmandu Valley. Different awareness programs must be provided not only to the meat sellers but also for the consumers.
Meat traders refuse to follow standards
Hundreds of meat sellers gathered in front of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) office on June 10. They assembled together in order to show their dissatisfaction toward the monitoring work which is being conducted by the KMC thrice a week in every butcher shops of the Kathmandu Valley.
In a bid to improve the condition of all meat shops in the Kathmandu Valley, KMC has formed a committee to monitor them on a regular basis. The committee which is led by Dr Gautam, the chief of KMC´s health department, visits butcher shops in a certain area to find out if they are maintaining minimum standards set by the government.
“We will continue our monitoring work as it forces the meat traders to improve their shop and maintain hygiene,” says Gautam.
However, the KMC´s monitoring work has upset the meat sellers. They are not ready to accept all the standards which are set by the government for meat traders. They say that the KMC started the monitoring work without informing them which, according to them, is not justified. “KMC should have informed us before starting the monitoring work,” shares Prabin Khadgi, who runs a butcher shop at Sorakhutte.
“We are not against their work but we want them to hear our problems as well,” adds Khadgi. “It is very difficult for a simple meat seller to maintain the standards,” he says.
The tension flared up on Saturday when a meat shop at Thamel was forcibly closed by KMC officials. According to KMC, as the meat shop was found to have poor hygienic condition, they had dumped all the meat of that shop and seized the keys of the shop for a day.
“We returned the keys after the shopkeeper signed a document in which he has assured to maintain the standards of his meat shop within a week,” says Gautam.
According to the meat traders, KMC is only trying to close their businesses. They claimed that the KMC is not ready to register any more meat shops in the Katmandu Valley.
“They do not provide us the necessary training and their standards are too high to be met by people like us,” says Shiva Ratna Khadgi, one of the meat sellers. “For example, we cannot afford marble and tiles flooring, which is one of the criteria,” says Khadgi.
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