SAFE NON-VEGETARIAN FOOD!

Current market realities…

•         Live birds are “fresh” – misconception

•         “Wet market” – Hand-processed birds account for 95% of chicken sale

•         No price-control

•         No documentation

–        therefore, no traceability, no accountability  

Current Problems with “Wet” Market… (please please ask me for pictures)

•       Crude method of processing the bird

–    Scientific slaughtering process is not followed

–    Too much blood in the carcass

•    incomplete draining of blood

–    Meat hardening/blackening due to pitting against the drum used

–    Primitive and crude de-feathering and de-beaking techniques

–    Abysmal quality of water used

•    contaminated water used over and over again

•    quality of water used may not always be potable

•       Multiple handling of meat by human hands

•       Chopping knife not sterilized…

•       Cross-contamination on the killing table – piece de la resistance! 

–    wooden block used for chopping

•    not cleaned after every slaughter

–    bacterial cross contamination – chicken, meat, fish – chopped 

–    Flies and other insects jumping from the freshly chopped meat to the drum in which the blood is being drained to other meats / garbage dumps located nearby!

–    Contamination particles of wood are embedded in the chopping and scooping of meat (kheema…?)

•      No chilling after de-feathering resulting in immediate bacterial attack

–   defeathering done manually

•      Viscera of the chicken, cleaned manually

•      ‘Partial cooking’ of meat during de-feathering

–   excessively high temperature of water used

–   Contaminated and same hot water recycled 

•      Poor quality of meat due to rigor mortis (spasmatic contraction of muscles due to shock)

•       Personal hygiene of the shopkeeper and the shop area and the environment

–    What about helpers (generally young children who have running noses, or even adults who cough and sneeze when doing their jobs….straight onto the meat?)

–    no safety measures

–    no hand gloves

•       No safety measures with regards to equipment used & processes followed

•       Lengthy farm-to-slaughter time leading to dehydration

–    cause for shriveled meat and death   

Meat Markets in ‘aamchi’ Mumbai

Transportation of ‘Live’ birds – Issues…

•      Inhuman conditions

•      Difficult transport and cruel storage of live birds

•      Improper ventilation as density of birds per sq.ft. abnormally high

•      Dirty trucks; seldom sanitized

•      Contamination from air and vehicle pollution

•      Spreading microorganisms / chicken droppings / feed / feathers while moving in the city

•      Trucks parked next to refuse / garbage dumps

–   birds contract illnesses or be susceptible to bites from rodents thereby turning carriers of diseases

•      Pollution of the environment

•      Increased traffic congestion  

Issues the Government should worry about…

•      National Health

–   Readily available Quality Food (raw & cooked)

–   Environmental cleanliness

–   Pollution

–   Ecological preservation

–   Consumer Awareness / education programmes

•      Proper and Adequate Solid Waste Disposal system

•      Cleaner & pleasant city to live in and for business visitors

•      Consumer’s right to know what “is ingested”  

Waste Disposal – Horror of it All!!

•      Slaughter waste generated per day is about 149 tons

–   Cost of disposal, high

–   Comprises feathers of chicken, bones, offal / guts and the blood

–   Indiscriminately disposed into our sewerage system daily

–   Putrefaction results in generation of poisonous gases

–   our sewerage lines have turned into gas chambers that could explode anytime, emitting gases which could kill people  

Waste Disposal – Horror of it All!!

–    Organic waste host to innumerable disease carrying bacteria, viruses, etc.

–    Attracts rodents and other scavengers who grow on this waste  

–    Rodents in turn damage pipelines, at the cost to the taxpayer

•       Organic waste when putrefied becomes host to innumerable disease carrying bacteria and other microorganisms, etc. 

–    Hence, any kind of slaughter is banned in ALL of the Metropolises of developed countries  

Waste Disposal – Horror of it All!!

•       Currently, BMC garbage trucks pick-up this kind of wet garbage from the markets / shops 

–    How is this waste disposed?

–    Wastage includes offals, feathers, blood, some carcass and bones

–    Offal consist mainly poultry manure, which generate corrosive ammonia gas and also some biogases after putrefaction

•    Lethal combination, especially in old, corroded sewage lines

•    Sewage lines a time bomb, waiting to explode!

•    Consequences far too horrendous to contemplate given the population density of this city

•    In Mumbai, the whole system – administrative, civic and health – would COLLAPSE!  

Waste Disposal – Horror of it All!!

•      Can we draw a correlation between rise in scavengers – rodents, cats, stray dogs, fleas, cockroaches and other unmentionables due to improper disposal?

•      Disposal does not end with ‘dumping’

–   in the sea or elsewhere

•    if it’s the sea, what about effect on marine life, both flora and fauna?  

Impact on Health….

•          325,000 cases of food borne illnesses

–         5,000 reported deaths per annum

–         Gastro-intestinal disorders, kidney failures, double vision, difficulty in swallowing, impaired speech & weakness

–         Food poisoning

–         Skin nodules, fever, sore throat, difficulty in vision, pneumonia*

–         Arthritis, meningitis, conjunctivitis

–         Headaches, diarrhea, abdominal discomfort, nausea  

Environmental hazards…

•      Poultry manure in pipelines lines is destructive

–   contains nitrogen and phosphorus, which harms waterways

•    causing excess algae, oxygen depletion

•    degradation of aquatic ecosystems in a process called "eutrophication".

•      Contaminates our seas causing ecological damage & environmental imbalances

•      Other concerns as mentioned in “Issues of transportation”

SOLUTIONS:

•      Prohibit Slaughter within BMC limits

–   Set up 3 markets for slaughter of poultry at 3 entry points – Vashi, Thane, Dahisar 

•      Link each market to a Rendering Plant

–   RP will recycle poultry waste into valuable additive for animal feed or organic fertilizer

•      Ban the carriage of live birds and other small animals within the metropolis limits

Recommendation I…..

•       Delhi Municipal Corporation’s Rules and Regulations of 1957 were suitably amended in 1993 to prevent the slaughter of chicken and any small animal within its jurisdiction

–    Chapter 20, Clause 415 specifically deals with this. The slaughter of chicken happens specifically outside the municipal limits and one hears there is a proposal to set up a Rendering Plant on a BOT basis. (In keeping with this move, the Delhi Municipal Commissioner has already issued an advertisement in the newspapers inviting bids from private parties)

•      BMC must also emulate the same for the betterment of this metropolis  

Recommendation II…..

•      Delhi Municipal Corporation prevents vehicles carrying poultry within its jurisdiction

•      BMC must prevent vehicles carrying SMALL animals (chicken) within its jurisdiction

–  Large animals (equines) necessary for the Derby

Recommendation III…..

•      BMC facilitates to set up designated marketplaces for the slaughter of small animals

•      At the three entry points…..Vashi, Thane and Dahisar.

Recommendation IV…..

•       Delhi Municipal Corporation is setting up Rendering Plants just outside its limits to recycle animal waste into valuable by-products

•      BMC should set up 3 Rendering Plants at 3 entry points into the city to offer an effective solution to solid animal wastes

–   Generate value added by-products & organic fertilizer

Recommendation V…..

•      BMC / Govt. must appoint HEALTH INSPECTORS / VETERINARIANS  at the slaughter facility to ensure that health and hygiene measures are complied with

•      Increased consumer awareness and government mandated standards must be introduced and enforced

Benefits of Slaughter facilities to BMC:

•       Central collection of wastes and hence multiple benefits –

–    Protects citizens from pollution (visual apart from the malodor and the subsequent effects of improper solid waste disposal)

–    Optimizes the efficiency of resources in collection of solid wastes

–    Solid waste can be piped to rendering plants

•    income-generating opportunity for people

•    in addition to providing effective recycling into a value product (animal feed or organic fertilizer)

•       The municipal body can earn revenue through the levy on slaughtered chicken 

Benefits of Slaughter facilities To the farmer –

–   Cost of transporting live birds will drop as distance to slaughter house / outlet lessens

–   Weight of the bird through moisture loss does not drop as farm-to- slaughter time is reduced

–   Consequently, less DOAs i.e., ‘death on arrival’ of chicken due to reduced stress

–   Regularising of rate of live chicken, ex-farm

Benefits of Slaughter facilities to shops:

•      Existing shop-owners to use their outlets to sell processed chicken

·        Singapore has made it compulsory overnight to install chillers at the outlets to avoid temperature abuse  

Benefits of Slaughter facilities….

•       Cost of construction of the slaughter facility to be recovered through the levy on the number of birds slaughtered or weight / tonnage of the meat that is being transported into the city from these facilities

–    slaughtered chicken gets transported in a packaged form and in ice

•    Supplementary growth in ice manufacturing facilities & other related businesses

•    Employment opportunities for so many retrenched & VRS recipients

–    Carries the name of the trader

•    Documentation, Accounting and Traceability made possible

By: Vinay Adhye...9892555595

vinay@agri-solutions.com

Dealer of Processed Chicken