By Athena Karsera
THE CYPRUS Consumer Association has expressed serious concern about the state of the island’s slaughterhouses.
Some establishments, it charged yesterday, do not even have doors on their refrigerators or refrigerated meat transporting vehicles.
The consumer body was presenting to a news conference the results of a study carried out after scheduled and spot checks on abattoirs, sometimes accompanied by a veterinary surgeon.
What it found were repeated violations of legal requirements regarding the slaughter of animals, as well as lax hygiene conditions at the abattoirs themselves.
And besides concerns on the proper storage of the meat, several slaughterhouses were found not to have the appropriate anaesthetizing equipment.
Other matters having a direct effect on consumer health included slaughtered animals and meat being left on the floor, the lack of inspection before and after slaughter, slaughterers not wearing correct uniform, children helping with the killing, animals not being gutted within the prescribed 30 minutes, and doubt over whether equipment was even cleaned after use.
The subject of the transport of live animals to abattoirs 12 hours and more before they were scheduled to be slaughtered, and the fact that they often witnessed other animals being killed was also cited, especially as these are issues that the European Union is very strict about.
Of the 67 abattoirs operating on the island, only seven are relatively new, with the rest dating back to the 1970s.
According to the Association, the older slaughterhouses are in the worst state, and the best is the Central Abattoir at Kofinou, which supplies about 70 per cent of the island’s meat.
As all consumers were the same, said Association President Loucas Aristodemou, so the quality of meat should be universal.
And he went on to suggest that Kofinou Abattoir be upgraded to EU standards, and that the older slaughterhouses simply be closed down until they too could be upgraded; all those without appropriate refrigeration should moreover be temporarily closed until the correct equipment could be obtained, and enforcement of regulations should be stepped up.
The Association has sent its recommendations to Agriculture Minister Costas Themistocleous, Commerce Minister Nicos Rolandis, Interior Minister Dinos Michaelides and Health Minister Christos Solomis.
