Chennai: Nearly two tonnes of meat seized at a railway station here on suspicion of it being dog meat has been found to be mutton, according to an analysis of the samples by the Madras Veterinary College.
However, the large meat consignment, falsely booked as fish from Rajasthan, was brought here by train in gross violation of food safety norms, Chennai district Collector A Shanmuga Sundaram said in a release Thursday.
He said the veterinary college has certified that the sample submitted to it for analysis was goat meat. The seizure of the meat on 17 November by food safety officials at the Egmore railway station here had led to a furore since it was suspected that the consignment ferried through a train that originated from Jodhpur was meant for supply to some city hotels.
The collector said the result of analysis by the state-run institution pointed out that “a given sample is small ruminant carcass (sheep/goat).” The meat slaughter was neither done at a government recognised abattoir nor was certified by a veterinarian.
Non-maintenance of cold chain, unhygienic packaging, declaration of one portion of the consignment falsely as “fish,” and another as “meat,” were the violations. Detailed guidelines on bringing consignments of meat from other states will be released by the food safety department, he said.
The Railway Protection Force Wednesday had dispatched a team of officials to Rajasthan to enquire into the consignor of the meat consignment since a part of it was falsely declared as fish and a man was arrested in this connection.
After providing a sample to the college for analysis, the rest of the consignment was removed to a garbage yard here as officials certified it to be unfit for human consumption.