THE sale of condemned meat products has flooded Choma District in Southern Province posing a health hazard which could trigger the outbreak of zoonotic diseases.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), zoonoses are infections or diseases transmitted directly or indirectly between animals and humans.
It is estimated that, through consumption of contaminated foodstuffs, zoonotic diseases were responsible for the death of 2.2 million people globally every year.
Those who consume such foodstuffs, get sick because of foodborne zoonoses which cause fever, dysentery, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, malaise and nausea.
A check by TIMES yesterday at Makalanguzu and Kalukungu markets in Choma, found some women marketeers selling pieces of condemned meat in dishes.
The assortment of meat products sold in open areas, included pieces of meat, offals and trotters which markeeters claim to buy cheaply from some abattoirs.
But Choma Municipal Council (CMC) public relations officer Ramona Phiri said the sale of condemned food was an offence and those found wanting could be prosecuted.
Ms Phiri said in an interview that council officers would move into the markets to confiscate such condemned meat products.
“Such meat products are not healthy for human consumption and it’s an offence to sale such condemned meat, “she said.
She was saddened that, despite the local authority’s repeated appeals to markeeters to refrain from selling uncertified foodstuffs, some were abrogating the law.
The council would not relent in enforcing section seven of the Foods and Drugs Act Chapter 303, which compels traders to only sale wholesome meat in a clean and designated place.
Ms Phiri warned unscrupulous owners of abattoir selling condemned meat products to refrain from the business or face the face.
She said the council health department was intensifying inspections in abattoirs to restrain the sale of uncertified meat products.
This PF website is bringing shame to itself. How can you write anout Choma before you write anout Soweto market? How do you know that the meat sold was condemned? Which zoonotic diseases in particular have broken out in Choma. You must be ashamed of your lies and unprofessional biased reporting. You have now turned into PF vuvuzela. Where is the market structure which your PF chairman is turning into a modern market? You are just B.a.s.t.a.r.d.s
there is a self made abattoir at shampande groceries next to jehovas witness and it is true with what the writter of the story has said
SO, WHEN YOU CONDEMN MEAT YOU LEAVE IT IN THE HANDS OF PEOPLE TO DECIDE WHAT TO DO WITH THE CONDEMNED MEAT? SOME ZAMBIA’S AUTHORITIES AREN’T SERIOUS AT ALL.
The caption below the picture above reads “Patriotic Front Choma Central Constituency secretary Joel Kamoko (left) with other youth party members inspect the Mochipapa community market which he is upgrading to a modern facility.”
All of a sudden the PF has party funds to upgrade a market! Where is the Choma council? No wonder cadres own markets!
UPMD, Choma is an area under your control as council. If I were you I would use Choma Council as a demonstration area of what a UPMD government can deliver in terms of good governance, good sanitation, good organization etc. But no, what we see and hear are the stories of dirt, rotten meat and illegal allocation of land. If UPMD canfail to rule in a small town like Choma, how can it handle large and complex cities like Lusaka, Ndola, Kitwe, let alone the whole country of Zambia? HH, start your skills of “economic manager” in Choma so that we can judge you. Charity begins at home remember? And Choma is your home as UPMD, no tribalism here, that is the headquarters of tonga land full stop.
napapa sana: UPMD, Choma is an area under your control as council. If I were you I would use Choma Council as a demonstration area of what a UPMD government can deliver in terms of good governance, good sanitation, good organization etc. But no, what we see and hear are the stories of dirt, rotten meat and illegal allocation of land. If UPMD canfail to rule in a small town like Choma, how can it handle large and complex cities like Lusaka, Ndola, Kitwe, let alone the whole country of Zambia? HH, start your skills of “economic manager” in Choma so that we can judge you. Charity begins at home remember? And Choma is your home as UPMD, no tribalism here, that is the headquarters of tonga land full stop.
So LT is now UPMD and does not publish comments on UPMD?
Just shut down the bloody thing then, or publish campaign posters for your party. F.ools!