Tijuana meat quality called into question

Tijuana's La Segunda newspaper this week offered a report that sanitary meat — be it beef, chicken, or pork — is out of control in Tijuana, devoid of any kind of quality control or review.

According to the article, meat inspection is glossed over at best and non-existent at worst. Carlos Garay Sánchez, director of Grupos Liberales, points to the PAN party as the reason meat has become suspect in the city. The party allegedly let meat inspection slide since 1989, when stringent laws were once in effect.

The article states that under municipal law, the governance of meat quality comes under the auspices of city hall, and, of late, says Garay, this quality control is non-existent and market meat is untraceable to its origins.

“There are no guarantees for the meat sold, its processing or origin,” said Garay.

There is an expression in Spanish, where one is warned not to accept gato por liebre or “cat for rabbit” (i.e., “Don’t buy a pig in a poke”), and Garay feels that it is time for city hall to step up to the plate, take the bull by the horns, and own up to its responsibilities.