Zambeef products shunned

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Posted June 23, 2013 by mitia in Featured

; By CHUSA SICHONE -

ZAMBEEF Products Plcs butcheries yesterday recorded a slump in business following revelations that the company has been importing beef products containing aromatic aldehydes. A check by the Sunday Times at the companys outlets on Freedom wayMumbwa Road junction, Kanyamas Los Angeles Road and Chawama branches in Lusaka found that the shops had been operational but the clientele base had drastically gone down. In some cases, the outlets were forced to close earlier due to the lack of customers, although the companys chief executive officer Francis Grogan said all Zambeef business points remained open until end-of-business at 17:00 hours. Mr Grogan insisted that outlets were operating normally and reiterated his earlier statement that reports that the company had been importing contaminated beef were a smear campaign by a former employee. But some of the firms employees and several customers talked to at the Zambeef Plc branches said allegations that imported beef products contained aromatic aldehydes had forced them to fear consuming the beef from the company. Meanwhile, fresh information into the Zambeef aromatic aldehydes saga has revealed that the firm tried to cover up the contaminated beef products so that the scam could not be exposed.

According to the Zambia Institute of Environmental Health (ZIEH), seized adulterated products in Chongwe and Kitwe were missing, while others had been tampered with. ZIEH vice-president Chabala Chanda and the Copperbelt chapter president Kentzo Mumba disclosed this during a media briefing in Lusaka yesterday. The ZIEH officials said tampering with seized products was unlawful as it bordered on a serious offence of obstruction of justice and urged relevant lawenforcement agencies to bring the culprits to book. We are informed that some of the huge quantity of suspected adulterated meat seized by some of our members in Chongwe and the Copperbelt were tampered with by Zambeef, Mr Chanda said. We are calling upon officers in the respective districts to ensure that legal action is instituted to bring to book those who tampered with the seized meat according to the provisions of Section 24 (9) of the Food and Drugs Act Cap 303 of the Laws of Zambia. Mr Mumba said when items were seized, they were supposed to be detained, meaning that their owners lost ownership once that action was taken, adding that the seized items would not be released until test results were out. When they are seized then the particular institution, in this case Zambeef, ceased to have authority over those items. Thus the tampering. In this case, some of them were physically removed, Mr Mumba said. For the case of Chongwe, they (products) are not even there, so that is obstruction of Justice, like we have indicated. In Kitwe, the officer who seized and signed for those items was pressurised to release them. Mr Mumba alleged that the Kitwe City Council officer in question attested to being intimidated by Zambeef officials and senior Kitwe City Council officers to the extent of threatening to dismiss him from his job if he did not succumb to their pressure. The officer gave in to the pressure and released the items, and that the pressure to release the seized products was owing to Zambeefs impatience as the company said it was losing business, especially that test results had taken long to be released. Results took a bit of time to be released, so our colleagues (Zambeef) were being impatient and they cited issues to do with losing business. They wanted these things to quickly go into circulation, Mr Mumba said.

Mr Mumba said the discovery was made between April and May this year in both Chongwe and Kitwe and identified the seized products as kidneys, bovine or ox liver, hooves and offals, among other imported products. The ZIEH also said the Food and Drugs Laboratory set up by the State as provided for in the Food and Drug Act was competent to conduct tests. The institute further urged all environmental health officers countrywide to ensure that the countrys laws were followed to the letter to protect human health and that sources of all meat sold by different suppliers should be known. The ZIEH appealed to the Government to consider establishing provincial laboratories for quick analysis of collected samples. Efforts to get a comment from Zambeef Plc public relations manager Justo Kopulande proved futile as by Press time as his phone was unanswered. Zambeef Plc is at the centre of controversy for selling imported beef products which allegedly contain aromatic aldehyde, a chemical used to embalm dead bodies and can cause organic cancer in humans. The company has since withdrawn all its imported beef products from sale at all its outlets countrywide until the Ministry of Health fully investigates the matter.