GenSan market stalls shut for selling tuna with pig's blood
TIMRA Reports • 15:45 PM Sun May 21, 2023
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By:
John M. Unson
Probers found packed animal blood in the market stalls they inspected. (From General Santos City LGU)
GENERAL SANTOS CITY - The local government unit here had shut four vending stalls in a market whose owners sold cuts of tuna smeared with blood of pigs to look fresh.
In a statement Saturday, the General Santos City government confirmed that its law-enforcement personnel and officials of a local market vendors’ association together ordered the four stall owners to stop operating pending the outcome of disciplinary proceedings against them.
The move was prompted by complaints of buyers who discovered their ploy to attract more buyers, sparking outrage among the local Muslim communities.
The names of the stall owners were withheld for their safety.
In a random check last week, personnel of the General Santos City LGU had found out that the owners of the four stalls indeed kept blood of pigs that they pour on tuna cuts they sell to appear reddish and look fresh.
The four stalls that personnel of the city government closed down are all located in the fish section of the General Santos City public market.
The city is known as the country’s tuna capital, where fishermen deliver tons of fresh tuna caught in seas near Indonesia.