Six more arrested for using chemicals for dead bodies to preserve meat
Kampala Capital City Authority has arrested six more butchers from markets across Kampala for using a concoction of chemicals to preserve meat.
Those arrested this morning include Katumba Erias, Mutebi Isma and Kalyango Umar from Nakasero Market, Senoga Isa from Mpererwe Market and Mulondo Bakka and Ssekate Ibrahim from Nalukolongo Market.
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They were netted as part of the intense citywide operations conducted jointly with the Uganda National Bureau of Standards on butcheries across the city. The operation is a fact-finding mission to check the compliance of butcheries with the required Public Health Standards.
The officers are particularly checking the hygienic state of the meat and the butchers, structural standards of the butcheries and investigating meat preservation mechanisms. A number of butchers have since been found in very unhygienic conditions and were closed off.
The operation comes on the backdrop of reports that a number of butcheries were using unregulated preservatives to make foodstuffs look deceptively fresh.
Meat samples on the market were reportedly tested and found to contain traces of formalin, the chemical commonly used to preserve dead bodies. It is reportedly that formalin, a solution known for the preservation of biological specimen and embalming in order to delay decomposition is used by butchers to repel flies from fresh products.
Others were reportedly used inorganic salts, which pose a health hazard to consumers.
Medical experts say that frequent consumption of formalin can cause irritation to the stomach, resulting in vomiting, or diarrhoea mixed with blood. It can damage kidneys and cause cancer in the long run.
