Choma council seizes condemned meat

A COMBINED team of Choma Municipal Council (CMC) health inspectors and council police on Thursday swung into action and confiscated over 70 kilogramms of suspected condemned meat which was being sold at an undesignated place.
The raid was conducted at the infamous Makalanguzu market where women were found selling pieces of meat placed in dishes.
Upon noticing the council officers, the women panicked and tried to run away with their dishes of the suspected condemned meat.
The assortment of the meat products, which were being sold at the open area, included pieces of chickens, sausages, pigs’ ears and trotters, chickens and offals, which were all confiscated and loaded onto a council vehicle in readiness for disposal.
After the raid, the council’s senior health inspector Sandie Mkandawire said in an interview it was sad that the local authority’s repeated appeals to the traders to only sell meat in designated places had been falling on deaf ears.
“It’s barely seven months from the time we came to confiscate meat here. We had even advised these same women to look for a shop or find cooler boxes so that they can sell meat in a decent environment,” Mr Mkandawire said.
He said his office will not relent in enforcing section seven of the Foods and Drugs Act Chapter 303, which compels traders to only sell wholesome meat in a clean and designated place such as a butchery.