CAIRO - More than 3.7 tonnes of adulterated meat including decomposing chicken parts allegedly destined for human consumption have been seized in a massive raid on a Giza warehouse, the police said. The stockpile, which were to be sold to fast food shops and restaurants, was uncovered in two huge freezer containers at an unlicensed cutting plant in Imbaba. After few days of surveillance, police officers and health and market inspectors found that meat was being bought at slaughter houses and poultry shops across the Greater Cairo Area, before being transported to the plant for processing packaging and re-introduction into the food shops, butcher shops and supermarkets, the police said. Evidence was found that rancid chicken, that had turned yellow through putrefaction, was bleached with chemical agents to make it look like healthy meat, health inspector Dr. Sayyed Gad said, adding that much of the meat at the plant had begun decomposing, before it was frozen. Dr. Gad said the meat was destined for specialist kebbab shops in Giza. He said the health risk was extensive. The unfit meat, according to laboratory tests, was likely to have been contaminated with bacteria. The swoop was one of the biggest in co-ordinated raids on the illegal meat trade in Giza before the holy fasting month of Ramadan, which is expected to start on August 1.
