Russia finds harmful microbes in Belarus poultry; producers unaware
However, Belarusians continue eating contaminated meat, because no warning has been issued. Even at the poultry factory in Maladzechna, nobody has a clue about this information.
“We have not been informed. I hear about this from you for the first time. If it were true, I would have been advised immediately. It would be a war here, with everyone flying around,” Anatol Savianok, the chief veterinary doctor at the factory told the European Radio for Belarus.
Why do the Russians know about the microbes in our chicken, while the Belarusians are unaware of the situation? Perhaps, it was a mistake.
But Alexey Alexeenko, the spokesman for the Russian Sanitary Authority, read out to our radio the official statement about the detention of the Belarus-made broilers.
“The batch of the product concerned – 1206 kg of poultry – was produced by the Maladzechna Poultry Factory, according to the Belarus’s veterinary authorities. If they have already received this document, they should be aware. Perhaps, they have not received it yet, because it is a very fresh document,” he said.
The microbes, found in the Belarusian broilers, point to the violation of storage temperature requirements and the poor sanitary control at the factory. Alexey Alexeenko tells us why these microbes are dangerous.
“They are dangerous, because they can cause food poisoning. To be more exact, not the microbes but the toxins that they produce are harmful,” he said.
Under the trade deal with Russia, if the Russian sanitary watchdog detects any violations at the Belarusian enterprises, the latter are inspected by the local veterinary authorities. After all the violations are corrected, the Belarus’s veterinary service informs the Russian sanitary authority and give guarantees that no further contamination will be repeated. Only after this, product supplies will be resumed.
Because of slow correspondence from Russia, nobody knows anything at the Belarusian poultry factory. They are hardly to find out about it over the weekend.
Alexey Alekseenko assured the European Radio for Belarus that this was a common routine and the temporary suspension of supplies of the Belarusian meat and poultry would not affect the eastern neighbor much.
“The point is that this case is not extraordinary. We would find the same microbes in the products supplied by Vietnam, China, et cetera. The international poultry market is huge.
Russia buys the biggest volume of meat from the far abroad. For example, Brazil sells us meat worth of $1.5 billion annually. It cannot be compared with the volume which the whole Belarus can offer,” the Russian official said.
Possibly, this is why they are in a hurry to report to the Belarus’s veterinary service. Nobody knows how many people here can get food poisoning before the Maladzechna poultry factory finds out what the Russians detected in their product.
