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â€œSwine fluâ€ reduces sausage sale in Azerbaijan by 35-40 % - INVESTIGATION

â€œSwine fluâ€ reduces sausage sale in Azerbaijan by 35-40 % - <font color=red>INVESTIGATION </font>

12 May 2009 11:55 (UTC +04:00)

The Health Ministry of Azerbaijan said no virus infection was identified in Azerbaijan, but sale of sausage market was reduced recently. According to monitoring held by APA, after the identification of â€œswineâ€ fluâ€ virus in some countries the sausage sale was reduced by 35-40% in Azerbaijan. There is a less fall in the market of â€œHalalâ€ sausages â€“ 15-20%. The prices were not changed seriously.

The sausage producerâ€™s spokesman Anar Rzayev told APA the identification of â€œswine fluâ€ virus negatively effected on the sausage market in Azerbaijan. He said the producers lost 50 percent of sale because the population avoided the buying of pork products, but it didnâ€™t effect on the prices. Some lowering of prices related to the economic crisis.

The population has preferred â€œHalalâ€ sausages since identification of â€œswine fluâ€ virus, Rzayev said and added that the Azerbaijani producers purchased the frozen halal meat from abroad, particularly from Turkey and Dubai, to produce the sausage goods. Rzayev said it was correct to use such meats for the sausage production and it didnâ€™t damage its halal quality. He said those producers used only beef and mutton.

Spokesman for Orkhan SS, the sausage producer, Fariz Gurbanov told APA that the â€œswine fluâ€ has no serious impact on the local sausage market because it was not identified in Azerbaijan. The virus threat didnâ€™t effect on the sale of halal products.

Gurbanov said they used pork earlier, but now they were not adding this meat to their products. It related not to the identification of â€œswine fluâ€, but to the halal quality of the products. He said they used the halal meats brought from abroad.

Expert of the Free Producers Union Farrukh Asgarov told APA most of the sausage goods, in the Azerbaijani market, almost 60 percent, are of poor quality. He said there was no etiquette and date of production on the goods. â€œThe meat used for the local sausage production is imported form abroad. It is not known, whether it is flesh of old or young animals, how it was cut or etc. One kg sausage is about 2.40 AZN, but one kg of fresh meat is 7-8 AZN. There is no conformity between the prices as wellâ€.

Asgarov said the halal sausages shouldnâ€™t contain pork, but some business-like people claimed that it was impossible to produce sausage without pork and used it. They prefer to use pork because it is cheaper than other meats and makes the sausage tasty and fat. The expert said the â€œswine fluâ€ disease had no negative impact on the production and prices of sausage goods because the World Health Organization declared that the virus is transmitted to the human not from the pork.
Director of food hygiene department of Republic Hygiene and Epidemiological Center Imran Abdullayev told APA that people could not be infected with H1N1 from sausages.
â€œI assure people that even though pork is used in preparing sausages, all bacteria are killed during technical processing. There are no bacteria alive that may cause disease. Thatâ€™s why there is no need to worry about the swine flu. In order to protect yourself from swine flu and other diseases, swine should be kept in closed conditions,â€ he said.

According to Abdullayev, the general situation in the local sausage market is satisfactory, but there are shortcomings. Before there had been some problems in bringing and applying technological equipment, the majority of these problems have been solved.
â€œNew technological equipment makes good production available. Such equipment has already been installed in big sausage producing enterprises. But small sausage making shops still use old equipment, this has influence on the technological production,â€ he said.

Imran Abdullayev said the most serious problem was internal laboratory control in sausage making shops. He said in all enterprises, including sausage making shops control lab should be set up, these labs should be supplied with necessary equipment. physical, chemical, bacteriological indicators of the products should be examined here. These indicators are not examined in small sausage making shops, as they have no labs. Abdullayev said the representatives of the center examine the quality of sausages in shops, not in the enterprises. The general results of the examinations show that the situation has become better compared with the previous year, but there still are problems.

It was found out that most sausages are spoilt in shops. The shops having no goods turnover take and sell sausages more than they can afford, it results in expiration date.

Abdullayev said that a number of hygienic rules should be observed while putting sausages on sale.
â€œWhen freezing equipment is not effective enough, keeping period of products should be shortened. Hygienic rules should be observed while cutting sausages. Special board, knife should be used while cutting sausages. That knife should not be used to cut other products. But we see that these requirements are not observed in shops. Products are spoilt in such conditions,â€ he said.

Abdullayev said buyers should also pay attention to the label of the products.
â€œSome people buy cheap products, but forgot that if a product is cheap, then it has some problems. Thatâ€™s why, they should not buy such products. If there is mould growth on the product, or it is green, if the sausage does not take its previous shape after being pressed, such products should not be bought,â€ he said.

The director of the department said it would be better if there is no pork in the sausage and added that it was not right to call sausage halal or haram. Sausages should be prepared according to the accepted standards. In accordance with these standards, the amount of pork in the sausage may differ, or there may not be pork at all. As regards usage of the meat of dead animal and cardboard in preparing sausages, Abdullayev did not rule out such cases, but said they had not observed such a fact.
â€œAnimal should be killed and cleaned. It is inadmissible to use the meat of the dead animal in sausages,â€ he said.

Chief of State Veterinary Service under Agriculture Ministry Ismayil Hasanov also considers there is no ground to worry about usage of sausages. Hasanov told APA that on April 27 Azerbaijan banned importation of animal products from America, where swine flu was first recorded.
â€œThe products brought to the country earlier, were examined and it was proved that they were safe for people. So, people can use the sausages brought from foreign countries to Azerbaijan by April 27,â€ he said.