CEBU, Philippines — San Miguel Foods Inc., assured Filipino consumers that pork products are safe to eat and not affected by the African Swine Fever (ASF).
In a statement, San Miguel Foods reiterated that ASF does not affect humans and therefore does not pose any risk to human health.
“It is a viral disease impacting only pigs, not people, and cannot be transmitted through contact with pigs or pork,” the company’s statement noted.
The company assures the public that it strictly adheres to the strictest animal health and biosecurity protocols.
“It’s chilled, frozen, and processed pork are produced from company-controlled hog breeding, growing, slaughtering, and manufacturing facilities. Its refrigerated and canned meats are cooked with heat above 70 degrees, thereby destroying harmful viruses, including ASF.”
The statement further added that all hogs are fed with sanitized feeds from their B-MEG plants using raw materials that are checked for contaminants that may affect food safety.
“Our hog growing farms are kept separate from our breeding animals in order to minimize cross contamination and break potential disease cycles. Our animal health programs are preventive in nature and are centered around biosecurity, disinfection and vaccination.”
It further said that regular surveillance for diseases through laboratory testing of blood and tissue samples are done to detect any incidence of disease and develop prevention and control measures before each instance develops into an outbreak situation.
“We currently test for African Swine Fever using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and have not detected positive reactors in any of our farms nationwide. Our slaughter plants are constantly monitored by the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS). Each hog is inspected before slaughter while each carcass is certified as disease-free before delivery to our meat shops and distributors,” the company assured.
San Miguel Foods fully emphasized that it complies with government guidelines on Good Animal Health Practice (GAHP), Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP), and Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP).
“Considering all these, we believe that our properly inspected, certified, and ASF-free pork products, whether fresh, processed, refrigerated, or canned, should be allowed entry throughout the country for our consumers to enjoy. We remain fully committed to the highest standards of quality and food safety in all our products,” the statement added.
San Miguel Foods Inc., owns Monterey and Purefoods, whose product lines are mostly fresh pork meat and processed pork products.