Meat sellers in Kigali have been urged to pay special attention to hygiene of meat they sell to ensure safety of consumers.

During a meeting between Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI), and the City of Kigali, and meat dealers, on Wednesday, Beatrice Uwumukiza, the director-general for agriculture and livestock inspection and certification services, at the ministry, urged meat dealers to comply with set hygiene requirements.

"Anyone in the meat value chain must comply with hygiene requirements to make profits without compromising consumers’ lives. We have in place ministerial orders that describe the requirements for meat transport, trading and conservation to ensure the safety of consumers,” said Uwumukiza.

She said, they recently carried out a survey in 161 butcheries within Kigali and found that only 8 per cent operated with official authorisation, while 12 per cent were located closer to unsafe areas.

Other shortfalls included questionable hygiene of employees and lack of functioning fly trapping lamps.

According to the Ministerial order n°013/11.30 of 18/11/2010 on transport and trade of meat, the butcher’s shop shall not be set up within two hundred metres from a site declared unsafe by the health authorities.

John Mugabo, in charge of hygiene at the City of Kigali, said several measures had been taken to ensure operators comply with the ministerial instructions.

"We offer training to meat traders about meat preservation and carry out inspection exercises to ensure compliance with provisions of the ministerial order. Those who do not comply with the order’s provisions are advised on how to go about it,” he said.

According to the International Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures which Rwanda is signatory to, all countries must ensure that food is safe for consumers, and to prevent the spread of pests or diseases among animals and plants.

These sanitary and phytosanitary measures can take many forms, such as requiring products to come from a disease-free area, inspection of products, specific treatment or processing of products, setting of allowable maximum levels of pesticide residues or permitted use of only certain additives in food.

Sanitary (human and animal health) and phytosanitary (plant health) measures apply to domestically produced food or local animal and plant diseases, as well as to products coming from other countries.

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