THIS June, the municipal abattoir in Georgetown will be 85 years old and with hardly any maintenance being done to the building, work is being impeded.

Chief Meat and Food Inspector, Onica Alleyne-Blackman, told Guyana Chronicle recently that some external funding to do the improvements would be welcomed, especially as the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) is financially strapped.

“We haven’t been doing much maintenance, which has resulted in some challenges to getting certain things done. The floors, for instance, need to be resurfaced. The lack of smooth work surfaces impedes cleaning,” Alleyne-Blackman explained.
However, she said they are still trying to maintain the hygiene and sanitation standards to ensure that wholesome meats are being sent off from the abattoir.
The hygiene situation is currently above average, she said.

“Our overall objective is to ensure consumers’ safety and protection,” Alleyne-Blackman said, adding that her department ensures that all food outlets are duly registered and licensed on a daily basis, including food handlers, school canteens, itinerant vendors and snow cone vendors.

The system at the abattoir is very manual at the moment, and Alleyne-Blackman is hoping that it can be upgraded to have better facilities such as better water supply, and a pig de-hairing machine.
The number of abattoir staff is also inadequate at the moment.

“We would like to see something done about the current structure. It would be nice if we can get some outside funding because City Council might not be able to stand the expenses of what is required now,” Alleyne-Blackman pointed out.

Slaughtering and meat inspection exercises are done on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays to ensure wholesome meats are distributed for consumption to the various markets. About 30 to 40 animals are slaughtered at the facility daily.
Two stun guns are also now in use after being unavailable for quite some time.