Concerns raised about abattoir facilities in Montego Bay

Despite hosting last week's high-profile 36th International Food Safety Conference of the Food Hygiene Bureau, Montego Bay is a city facing its own food safety challenges as it has been operating without a proper slaughter facility (abattoir) for the past 10 years.

Speaking at the food conference, which was staged at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Montego Bay, Dr Marcia Johnson Campbell, the acting technical director of the Western Regional Health Authority (WRHA), says the absence of a centralised slaughtering facility is having a negative impact on the authority.

"The absence of an abattoir is impacting us in a negative way and sometimes compromise proper meat hygiene practices," said Dr Johnson Campbell, noting that the authority's officers are required to travel far distances to do inspections. "The need for food security has emerged as a national priority as global economic and environmental forces combine to threaten long-term food supply."

CLOSED DOWN

The municipal abattoir was closed in 2002 by the St James Health Department due to a number of infractions including liquid wastes, pollution of the coastline, smoke nuisance caused by the burning of wood, which was due to the absence of a boiler, poor refuse management and a lack of security personnel.

However, Dr Ken Garfield Douglas, a director of the Western Regional Health Authority (WRHA), does not believe that the meat being consumed in the parish is being comprise, albeit the absence of a central slaughter house has resulted in a reduction in the amount of animals being slaughtered.

"Four satellite areas have been identified across the parish with the one at Anchovy being the largest and most used," said Douglas. "Slaughter places are inspected every time that notification is received concerning slaughtering in addition to once per year inspection for licensing purpose. We have ensured that all legally slaughtered animals were inspected."

Despite lobbying by the health department to get the old abattoir, which is sited on a property owned by the Jamaica Railway Corporation to reopen, that is unlikely to happen as the company says it has other plans for the area, which is being earmarked as a commercial district.

Montego Bay Mayor Glendon Harris recently noted that he was pushing for a joint venture arrangement between the Government and the private sector to create a new municipal abattoir on lands owned by the Government at Montpelier in the parish.

- M.T