Farm Slaughtering 'Dead Cows' Shut as Tanmia Mortadella 'Meets Standards'

Health Ministry inspectors on Friday shut down a farm in the Bekaa region that was slaughtering “dead cows” and selling their meat, as the ministry announced that the Tanmia chicken firm has improved its mortadella section to meet the proper standards.

“A team of health inspectors from the Zahle district department raided a cow farm in the Bekaa area of Kfarzabad after suspecting that its owner was slaughtering dead cows there and selling their meat at his butchery that is located in Deir Zannoun, as well as to several other butcheries in the region,” the ministry said in a statement.

“Skinny cows, meat hooks and a meat refrigerator were found at the four-hangar farm,” the ministry added.

A veterinarian from the Ministry of Agriculture was called in to examine the cows and he corroborated the health ministry team's suspicions that the cows were “malnourished, ill and unfit for slaughter.”

Accordingly, Health Minister Wael Abou Faour sent a memo to Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq, asking him to shut down the farm and the butchery.

Abou Faour also asked Bekaa Prosecutor Farid Kallas to refer the farm's owner to the judiciary, demanding “follow-up, investigation and relevant judicial measures.”

Separately, the Ministry of Health announced that the Tanmia chicken meat processing company has “conducted the required amendments to its mortadella section.”

“It is now working according to the proper standards,” the ministry said, noting that the firm was only warned and that the section was never ordered shut.

Abou Faour has recently ordered the closure of the main slaughterhouse in Beirut and several abattoirs across the country until they meet the necessary requirements, as he revealed the names of several others that have received warnings to improve their conditions.

The measures are part of an unprecedented food safety campaign that was launched by the minister in early November.

According to Abou Faour, some popular restaurant chains and supermarkets are serving customers food contaminated with bacteria and other inedible substances.

Other food safety violations include “the presence of flies on the refrigerators of dairy products, the presence of open garbage bins in kitchens, workers not wearing gloves and frying oil that was not changed for months,” the minister announced on November 11.

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(Photo courtesy of MTV)