Officials from all levels of government took measures Monday to try to regulate the food industry, in response to the ongoing food scandal that has gripped the country since last week, while the Progressive Socialist Party vowed to expand the campaign further. Agricultural Minister Akram Chehayeb led the way; his ministry announced new measures to step up food monitoring. During a meeting Monday, Agriculture Ministry officials discussed ways to intensify inspections and monitoring over both imported and locally produced animal and vegetable products.
Chehayeb also ordered an enhancement of inspection methods and called for all testing laboratories to be reactivated.
Also Monday, Beirut governor Ziad Shebib visited the notorious Karantina slaughterhouse and issued clear instructions to the staff on the necessary precautions to protest public health. These instructions included directives on sanitizing the building and equipment.
Head of the Slaughterhouse Directorate Joseph Mounem, along with several members of the Beirut Municipal Council, accompanied Shebib on the visit. Mounem insisted that meat traders and butchers were to blame for the contaminated meat epidemic.
The slaughterhouse, he said, was cleaned and disinfected daily by the Beirut municipality and all waste associated with the animals – feces, corpses, bones etc. – was treated.
The Daily Star visited Karantina slaughterhouse shortly after the governor left and found the floor still wet, as the place appeared to have been freshly cleaned.
Many media outlets were present, expecting a visit from Health Minister Wael Abou Faour and PSP party leader Walid Jumblatt.
Jumblatt tweeted at the weekend that he and Abou Faour (also from the PSP) would make a visit to the slaughterhouse sometime this week.
The health minister sparked the food scandal last week when he revealed – live on television, for the whole country to watch – the names of multiple establishments that he said sold contaminated food. The list included some of the country’s most popular and established restaurants and supermarkets.
Jumblatt used his weekly column in Al-Anbaa Monday to demonstrate his continued support for Abou Faour, and pledged to expand the campaign further.
“The battle that is being waged by the PSP will not stop, but will continue, to cover different issues related to food safety such as monitoring imports and clean water,” the party leader said.
Jumblatt also vowed to expand the campaign to start scrutinizing water suppliers in Lebanon, reiterating Abou Faour’s pledge over the weekend to make water suppliers the next target for investigation by the ministry.
Seemingly in response to the PSP’s plans, the Water Establishment for Beirut and Mount Lebanon issued a statement Monday claiming that there is no pollution in the public water supply to those regions. They went on to explain that any pollution found by the ministry was a result of citizens tampering with the supply networks.
“Citizens interfering with distribution networks may be a source of water pollution,” read a statement released by the water company. The statement went on to urge people to inform the company of any interference in distribution networks.
The supplier also noted that the network was subject to ongoing maintenance and the company was starting to modernize the water networks in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Jumblatt slammed the people who were criticizing the campaign and claimed that they were trying to deflect responsibility over the issue.
Tourism Minister Michel Pharaon – an outspoken of critic of the Health Ministry’s campaign – continued to refute claims that the food industry was mired in contaminated products.
According to Pharaon, Lebanon has among the lowest rates of food poisoning anywhere in the world.
“The tourism and [restaurant] sector is not rotten, but it is a sector that pumps in 10 to 20 percent of the GNP and secures work and jobs for a large number of families, and we should support it,” Pharaon told a news conference Monday.
While he admitted that there were some corrupt elements within the tourism and restaurant sector, he said that the entire sector should not be judged negatively because of this.
