Dharma Jaya proposes a meat center

JAKARTA (JP): In response to growing public concern over the selling of wild boar meat as cheap beef, city-owned slaughterhouse firm PD Dharma Jaya proposed the establishment of a pork center to control the quality and distribution of meat, an official said on Monday.

PD Dharma Jaya president Prabowo Soenirman said that with the establishment of the center, his office would be responsible for monitoring the health of the animals as well as pork distribution.

"With the center, we can monitor the quality of pork meat to ensure safe consumption before it reaches the markets," he told reporters after meeting with Deputy Governor for Economics and Finance Fauzie Alvi Yasin at City Hall.

Prabowo said that all animals would have to be quarantined and medically examined for a few days at the pork center before they could be sent to the slaughterhouse.

PD Dharma Jaya oversees six slaughterhouses. Two in East Jakarta -- the Cakung slaughterhouse for cows and Pulogadung slaughterhouse for chickens, goats and lambs --; Mampang slaughterhouse in South Jakarta for chickens, goats and lambs; Kapuk slaughterhouse in North Jakarta for pigs; and Tanah Abang slaughterhouse in Central Jakarta for lambs and goats.

Prabowo said that at present such a center could only be found at the Kapuk slaughterhouse.

"We'll also develop similar terminals at the five other slaughterhouses," he said.

He said the demand for pork by residents in the capital was 500 pigs per day. The animals are transported to the Kapuk slaughterhouse before they reach the market.

"At present, 17 percent of the capital's pork supplies are butchered outside the Kapuk slaughterhouse. Therefore, we cannot observe the quality of all the pork sold," he said. (lup)