Tangerang (ANTARA) - The Indonesian Quarantine Agency (Barantin) incinerated a total of 17.2 tons of cattle offal imported from Australia that did not meet Indonesian quarantine requirements.Barantin head Sahat Manaor Panggabean informed that the offal consignment was confiscated from a company in Tangerang district after it was found to contain spleen mixed with other innards.
“Note the import consignment does not match its document, which states that the offal included only tongues and beef throats. In reality, we found beef spleen there,” he expounded at a press conference in Tangerang district, Banten, on Wednesday.
Under the Agriculture Minister’s Regulation No. 42 of 2019 concerning the import of carcasses, meat, offal, and derivative food products, Indonesia permits only specific offal types, namely tongue, heart, liver, and lung.
Panggabean informed that following the discovery of spleen in the offal consignment, the Barantin took the necessary measures to prevent its distribution, given the risk of the spread of foot-and-mouth disease, lumpy skin disease, and anthrax.
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He said that his office will conduct a thorough investigation to determine whether the inclusion of beef spleen was intentional or the result of negligence.
“We will look into what happened in Australia to understand if stakeholders there were simply unaware that not all innards are treated the same in Indonesia,” he added.
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Furthermore, the official highlighted that the Barantin is coordinating with partner countries, urging them to prevent the shipment of food commodities banned in Indonesia.
“We have briefed all countries, not only Australia, on which goods are allowed to enter Indonesia. I think we will continue to spread this information,” he said.
