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Rotten Meat Triggers Sharjah Ban on Pre-packed Minced Meat

SHARJAH — The Sharjah Municipality has banned the sale of pre-packed minced meat in supermarkets and food outlets to protect public health after it was found that rotten meat was being sold and consumers were being cheated of quality meat.

Sultan Al Mulla, Director General of Sharjah Municipality, told Khaleej Times that the ban will allow customers to demand butcheries to grind the meat in their presence.

An official at the municipality’s inspection section, who asked not to be named, said that the municipality‘s health section, during recent inspection campaigns, found large quantities of rotten meat being sold to customers.

The inspectors also took samples of minced meat sold in the market and tested in them in a laboratory and found the meat was unfit for human consumption. The inspectors also found customers were being duped in the sale of pre-prepared and packaged minced meat, as many companies were including ground fat, skin and expired meat which could cause food poisoning.

Minced meat companies were found to be grinding a lot of other animal parts such as tails and internal parts, which are cheaper and allow the trader to make a higher profit. The municipality fined all errant butchers and meat outlets that sold unhealthy minced meat.

The municipality also shut down one of the meat outlets for selling chicken past expiry date by mixing it with fat and red meat and selling it as 
minced meat. The municipality issued a circular to all food outlets informing them about the ban.

Food outlets that found violating the rule will be fined up to Dh10,000 and if the violation is repeated, the premises will be sealed. An Amazon supermarket official said they received the circular from the municipality and were abiding by the civic body’s regulation.

“We are now mincing meat for customer in their presence at no charges for the grinding services,” said one of 
the staff Mohamed Alam, a grocer in Al Mussalah, said minced meat was not being supplied to the store any more.

“We asked customers to buy it from big supermarkets or the meat market, as we are a small shop and we don’t have machines to provide the mince 
meat services.”

Awatif Mohammed said on three occasions she had found too much fat in the ready-packed minced meat and had decided to only buy minced meat prepared in her presence.

afkarali@khaleejtimes.ae

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