Foul
feathers
Illegal
chicken slaughtering in Mumbai is a disaster in waiting if the current
practices of waste disposal and checks on meat quality continue unabated,
say Vinay Adhyay and Malati Puranik
Mumbai,
which contributes approximately 40 per cent to the national exchequer
by way of taxes, constitutes a predominantly non-vegetarian population,
if one were to go by the National Food Survey where egg is considered
non-vegetarian. Poultry meat consumption constitutes around 22 per
cent of the total meat consumption in the country.
The
Indian urban population accounts for around 75 per cent of the total
poultry consumption in the country. Within the metropolis of Mumbai,
the total chicken consumption per day is about 300-450 metric tonnes.
During
the lean period of July- September, consumption drops to 220-230 m
tonnes and thereafter rises to 420-450 m tonnes per day. Most of the
upmarket hotels and restaurants, constituting almost 10-15 per cent
of Mumbai’s requirements, buy chicken from state-of-the-art processing
facilities.
Consumers
at such places (generally falling in the ‘floating population’ category)
are assumed to be eating ‘safe’ meat. There are about 2,500-2,700
shops in Mumbai, which sell non-vegetarian products. The break-up
is: live birds - 2,000 -2,200 numbers; cold storage - 70-80 numbers
(most of the cold storages store and sell pork); and mutton shops
- 250-300 numbers (most of the mutton shops are in the BMC market
areas).
MYTH
# 1: LIVE IS FRESH
Live
bird shops are spread quite evenly throughout the city whereas cold
storages are in Catholic and upmarket areas. The live bird caters
to almost 95 per cent of the retail market. Almost 70 per cent of
the slaughtering as well as retailing is done in the morning and the
rest is done during the day.
Since
the consumer preference has remained for a live bird out of ignorance,
the vendor plays unscrupulously on this need.
It
is a possibility that vendors, who have a huge customer base, slaughter
chicken when they have the time, dress the birds and drop them in
the deep freezer in the shop. Thus begins the process of slow freezing
of the birds. A few hours before the expected demand, the birds are
dropped into warm/hot water to speed up the process of thawing and
are ready for sale as a fresh bird.
In
the poultry ‘live market’, the trader is blissfully unaware of the
conditions in which chicken are grown. It is imperative that chicken
/ animals are not given antibiotics at least 72 hours prior to slaughter.
Further,
the birds are not subjected to a check-up by a veterinarian at the
point of slaughter. What happens in reality is that even if the bird
is slaughtered in the customer’s presence, and assuming the bird is
healthy and fit for consumption, there is a time lag of at least 3
hours before the meat is cooked in the kitchen.
Meat
and blood, as we all know, are fertile cultures, which allow rapid
multiplication of bacteria and ecoli. Colonies of bacteria and ecoli
are commonly found in meat that is left for a couple of hours which
when ingested can cause gastro-intestinal disorders.
An
added concern is the difficulty in tracking a particular batch of
meat (traceability), since most of the meat sold is unbranded. Birds
are brought by transporters and dumped at the point of sale outlets.
The density of the birds per square foot in the truck is so high that
ventilation is poor. Imagine if even one bird out of these is a carrier
of a viral sickness. Another problem that compounds ‘live bird’ slaughter
is one of pricing.
Sometimes,
when the shop-owner fears the live chicken may not last another day
or is on the verge of dying, he quickly slaughters it and passes it
off at a lower price! The slaughter of live birds is referred to as
the ‘wet’ market. Some of the grotesque facts pertaining to the existing
slaughtering methods are multiple handling of meat by human hands,
crude methods of processing the birds, crosscontamination on the killing
table, poor quality of meat due to rigor mortis, viscera of the chicken
cleaned manually, chopping knife not sterilised, no safety measures
with regards to equipment and processes, and a long waiting time of
live birds which leads to dehydration and death.
WASTE
DISPOSAL HORRORS
On
an average, Mumbai receives about 2.5-3.0 lakh live birds per day.
However, on weekends, this figure easily crosses 3 lakh birds per
day. Wastage from a 1.5 kg ‘live bird’ (average weight) is approximately
33 per cent, that is, 495 grams waste per day. If about 3 lakh-plus
birds are slaughtered daily, it results in about 1,48,500 kgs of waste
being generated.
There
is a tremendous cost involved in disposing off 148 tons of waste per
day. This waste comprises feathers of chicken, bones, offal / guts
and the blood. If collected at a single point this waste can be converted
in food for pets and also can be used in fisheries.
However,
this waste is indiscriminately disposed into our sewerage system daily;
the putrefaction results in generation of poisonous gases which have
turned our sewerage lines into gas chambers that could explode anytime,
emitting gases which could kill people.
| THERE ARE
ALMOST 800 SHOPS IN MUMBAI ENGAGED IN ILLEGAL SLAUGHTERING. THESE
SHOPS ARE LOCATED DEEP IN THE MARKET PLACES WITH EXTREMELY POOR
WATER AND DRAINAGE FACILITIES |
This
organic waste also becomes host to innumerable disease carrying bacteria,
viruses, etc. in addition to attracting rodents and other scavengers
who grow on this waste spreading deadly diseases such as plague.
There
are almost 800 shops in Mumbai where this slaughtering goes on unchallenged.
These shops are located deep in the market places with poor water
and drainage facilities. The irony is that all these shops are carrying
out the slaughtering illegally. None of them has a license to slaughter;
they only have the license to sell live chicken in ‘live’ form.
How
could one get a license to slaughter without a waste disposal plant?
A few of the places where the concentration of these shops is high
are Crawford Market, Null Bazaar, Grant Road Market, Dongri Market,
Dadasaheb Phalke Road, Lalbaug Market, Near Koliwada Rly. Station,
Vikhroli Rly. Station, Bandra Bazaar and Dharavi. According to our
data and information, a break-up of birds coming into Mumbai is from
Vashi Naka (40 per cent), Thane Naka (45 per cent), and Dahisar Naka
(15 per cent).
HEALTH
HAZARDS
The microbiology of chicken meat is significant - both form a shelf
life during storage and foodborne illness point of view. The bacterial
count of any meat during production - hand processing (manual slaughter
of chicken) / mechanical methods - and marketing depends on...
contd...
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