Busan City Strengthens Livestock Product Safety Management

Implementation of the '2020 Livestock Products Safety Management Plan'

Panoramic view of Busan City Hall. (Photo by Busan City Hall)

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Yoon Yoseop] Busan City announced on the 14th that it has established the ‘2020 Livestock Product Safety Management Plan’ to ensure safe distribution of livestock products and will strengthen safety management of livestock products.

In Busan, there are 234 livestock product processing companies and a total of 5,923 livestock-related businesses including meat packaging and processing companies, and livestock product sales, storage, and transportation companies operating.

This year, to ensure the safety management of eggs, support will be provided for refrigerated vehicles for eggs, including mandatory refrigerated distribution of water-washed eggs. In addition, to strengthen safety management of distributed eggs following the implementation of the egg shell laying date labeling system, eggs distributed at edible egg retail stores and marts will be collected and tested for the presence of pesticides, antibiotics, and other substances.

In particular, by collecting and inspecting by-products such as chicken feet, which were reported in the media last year as ‘blackened, pus-filled chicken feet with skin disease distributed nationwide,’ and processed products made from these by-products, the city plans to alleviate citizens’ concerns.

During peak seasons for livestock products such as Lunar New Year and Chuseok, special inspections will focus on the cleanliness of workplaces and hygiene management of workers at livestock product processing plants and meat retail stores handling livestock products.

Throughout the year, livestock products produced and sold by livestock product processing and distribution companies will be randomly collected by the city and district offices to monitor for non-compliant livestock products. In case of any issues, the problematic livestock products will be promptly recalled and disposed of to prevent further distribution.

To improve the fairness and reliability of livestock product inspections, 26 citizens with extensive knowledge and experience regarding livestock products will be appointed as ‘Honorary Livestock Product Hygiene Inspectors.’ These inspectors, as consumer citizens, will directly monitor to prevent the distribution of fraudulent or substandard livestock products and will be responsible for promoting and educating on hygiene and maintaining trade order of livestock products.

Jung Sam-ryong, Director of the Livestock and Agricultural Products Distribution Division of Busan City, said, “We will strengthen an efficient livestock product hygiene monitoring system to provide safe livestock products trusted by citizens,” and added, “We will do our best in hygiene monitoring, sample collection and inspection, guidance, and promotion to ensure the safety management of livestock products directly related to citizens’ health.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.