Zambia Institute of Environmental Health (ZIEH) has taken great exception to the comments made by Zambeef chief executive officer Francis Grogan, who doubted the competence of ZIEH members to take samples.
Speaking at a press briefing in Lusaka yesterday ZIEH vice-president Chabala Chanda further said that test conducted on samples outside the country may not stand in the Zambian courts of law.
“We have every confidence in the Food and Drugs Laboratory set up by the State as provided for by the Food and Drug Act. Other tests carried outside the country or any other laboratory within the country cannot stand in our courts of law but are welcome for verification,” he said.
On Friday Zambeef CEO announced that his company had commenced independent tests on withdrawn products at Bamora Livestock Research centre and Eurofin Group, an international group of laboratories head quartered in Luxemburg with 180 sites in 35 countries.
He added, “It was imperative that we conduct our own independent tests because we have difficulties with the authenticity of the test results conducted by government. These are tests that are done in the middle of the night and we are not even informed of the protocols used.”
At the same press briefing, Mr Chanda also said that the alleged action by Zambeef to remove the seized products is tantamount to obstruction of justice, according to the provisions of section 24 (9) of the Food and Drugs Act cap 303 of the Laws of Zambia.
Mr Chanda said the Public Health Act Cap 295 and the Food and Drugs Act Cap 303 of the Laws of Zambia clearly guide on what should be followed when importing meat from outside.
Mr Chanda said in terms of adulteration, section 3 of the Food and Drugs Act prohibits against the sale of poisonous, unwholesome or adulterated food.
He said sources of all meats sold within districts by different suppliers should be known, adding that documentation should be complete according to the provisions of the law.
Meanwhile, Copperbelt ZIEH chapter president Kenzo Mumba said a Kitwe City Council officer was pressurised and threatened into releasing the seized meat.
Mr Mumba said in Chongwe, Zambeef removed the contaminated products from their storage facility and released them into circulation.
He said at Huntley Farm, which is one of Zambeef’s storage facilities, the withdrawn meat products were recalled for re-packaging.
“That meat expired, for what purpose was it recalled? Why would they want to repackage it? They did not even inform the public health authorities about that meat, which is another offence,” he said.
Ele, elo lyanya kuli ba mwisho.
There is starvation among civil servants under PF, now they resort to confiscating food.
I agree with that Zambeef director, how can inspectors test meat samples pa charcoal fire?
If the world was to end today, only cockroaches, WD staff, UPND members and Nostradamus would survive.
WOW!! what a pack of survivors!!
Only cockroaches, WD staff, upnd and Nostradamus would survive if the world ended today!!
What a pack of survivors
Iwe @ChiKambwili Ububi,
Yes if the world ended today, the thugs who will head for barbeque in hell will be you you, Kambwili, Sata, km Sampa, and in front will be Kabimba.
Nostra…. you seem to agree with the Zambeef chap, this guy immediately calls on an “Inferiority” card about how a state approved lab, & you cosy up with him!! YOU HAVE INDEED FORGOTTEN WITH YOU SHORT MEMORY, THAT EUROPE WAS AWASH WITH HORSE-MEAT & WHAT A SCANDAL IT HAD BEEN! So in your wisdom, you don’t even stop to think! THESE GUYS ARE most likely, OFFLOADING THE STOCKPILES OF HORSEMEAT THAT THEY CAN’T SELL IN EUROPE!!! Most of Europe, & especially UK, import their MEATS FROM AFRICA & SOUTH AMERICA, we have to be SO S.T.UPID TO BE IMPORTING MEAT FROM UK – This is the mentality complex we have in Zed, that anything from UK should be GOOD!!! RIGHT ON, LETS ENJOY THE HORSES!!!!!!! Am sure when chaps are so drunk, the horses “fi kondilo” just taste & look like cattle’s!!!!!
Nostr… you should be ashamed of yourself, the guy calls your state approved labs inferior & you sing praises!! You have easily forgotten the HORSE-MEAT SCANDAL, & it hasn’t crossed your mind that these guys may yet be OFFLOADING ALL THAT HORSEMEAT IN ZED???? Europe, escepscially UK import Beef from Africa & South America, whilst us fo. olish zedians, who at the mention of UK, think heaven, ARE IMPORTING “BEEF” from UK!! Great, lets enjoy the horses, am sure their “fi kondilo” will surely taste as good if not more, considering they are nimble on their feet!!
Sori for the duplication, it earlier looked like LT were blocking my mssg!
@ Boxale I couldn’t agree with you more. This inferiority thing will kill us if not careful. Zambeef what a disgraceful company, quite happy to sell poison!! Devilish indeed!!!
Everything in zambia is just mediocre,from zambeef to tujilijili- almost all products are of suspect quality.
Go back to your country koswe!!! Why mock Zambia when you are not even a citizen!!!@Enka
Yeah,coz everyone is supposed to have a name like Phiri,Banda,Mutinta or Lewanika j to be truly Zambian? We can’t have names like Shah,Enka or Abdul in zambia?Pls take your intolerance back to your shack in kabwata coz we actually pay more taxes than you and we are zambian more than ya.
#2.1 Enka, for as long as I will never find a Phiri, Banda or Chileshe in India, Saudi Arabia or Pakistan then you will never be Zambian if you have names like Abdu, Osama or Ahmed. Zambia is for Zambians with names like Phiri and Banda while those ‘drone strike suffering’ regions that host terrorists are for the Abdu’s, Kalid’s Ahmed etc. do you understand Mr Osama? You can pay all your taxes as you wish, but believe me, Zambia will never be your home just like this country will never be my home. Lets learn to accept that and live in peace.
Gosh,its amazing to see the intolerance and ignorance obtaining in zambia.With a little research one will find that Enka is actually a maasai name from east africa and not Pakistan,India or Arab world.Too many bigots here.
@Enka to begin with don’t generalise my friend. Not all Zambians are like Muleya G. and Kaponyas. We have Phiri’s, Hamwela’s and Sichone’s around the world. This is a modern world where African or European doesn’t connote a color. There are Africans who are white and Blacks who are europeans. Unfortunately we get to base our opinions based on the common people, who are mostly common in any society.
this is not good for a company that is one of Zambia success stories
What does dis zambeef din are, dese descendants of colonilists ? Should we accept our lives 2 be in danger o because u ve employed Zambians? ldiocy at its worst? Whoever posts those demonic posts at zwd must know that he decompaigns Hh .
why has the govt allowed these murderers continue to poison us in our own country?
they even have the audacity to challenge authorities that seized their poisonous meat while the govt is ndwiii.
please just close all zambeef outlets with immediate effect to safequard our lives otherwise we are watching.
I smell PF involvement in all of this. It is hardly surprising given that Hichilemba supplies most the Beef sold by Zambeef from his ranches.
I hope you know what adelhydes are sir. You would bring conspiracy theories only as a last resort…
Let’s see if I know what aldehydes are? Hmmm. with a PhD in science from Oxford. Hmmm. Aldehydes, sometimes known as the formyl group, have a functional group with a structure R-CHO consisting of a carbonyl centre bonded to hydrogen and an R group which is an alkyl or side chain. R is the aldehyde group. They are some sometimes known as aromatic organic compounds because they usually have a fragrance associated with them.
Just to let you know, I work in drag development for a big Pharmaceutical company in the UK!
@Chanda Banda Hachilala Moomba Sichilima Kalusa, sorry all your knowledge is fake, since you work in a DRAG company. Genuine chemists work in DRUG comapnies.
If it was in Europe or America with such a deadly scam unearthed.Zambeef outlets by now wud hv been all closed up with their head office sealed with non of their management allowed entry in these offices so that investigative authorities dig deeper for any useful documentations related to this scam & can assure u all their top management officers at Zambeef wud hv been arrested facing criminal chargers & I mean only in serious countries that care about public health for its citizenry but not Zambia my corrupt country.Shame on us & our mentality. What’s wrong with us surely country men & women??? Someone help me….
Malabish! how many outlets were closed down in the midst of the horse meat scandal that rocked most Europe? Name one person that is facing criminal charges after the scandal was unearthed? This government is determined to destroy anything that will stand in it way for selfish reasons. Why are they rushing to prosecute even before explaining to the public exactly what meat is contaminated. Since they have implicated other counties as the source of this contamination, why are they not allowing experts from these countries to help verify and trace the source of the chemicals involved? PF are killing their own citizens at point blank range using guns and no one dares to question. Soon they will embark on ethnic cleansing just to secure another term of office.
Please close the da@n company. Life is more important than profits. Let us all boycott zambeef and see if that grogan (whatever his name is) will have a company to talk about.
The issue of food safety is very crucial. All people deserve good quality food. Any compromise of food standards must be dealt with very fast and normality be brought to normal. No one with a right sense of mind should eat contaminated or expired food stuffs because there are health consequences, short, medium or long term. Unfortunately, profit motive can make people were blinkers and make their profits at the expense of unsuspecting clients. That why whistle blowers, monitors and law enforcers can play that important role to protect the general public. Hope this Beef issue will be sorted out the soonest.
Are you SURE IT IS “BEEF” & NOT HORSEMEAT?????????
I wish LT can make it possible to enable bloggers edit what they have posted to make corrections. Spell checks, misspellings, missed words can be corrected. Even though its the responsibility of the writer to post correctly written text, in this fast running life activities errors are bound, thus the need for the editing one’s blogs.
There is a blogger at LT calling himself as Confused.com, impersonating Confused.com, part of the Admiral Group, a British price comparison website specialising in insurance and financial services. Watch this character at LT. Impersonating is a very good case for legal litigation!
NOSTRA-ANUS, dont politic.
@1.1 NOSTRA-ANUS, dont politic.
Those saying its coz HH supplies beef thats grz is an earthing, leave that scumbag out of this. No wonder HH has such canning behavior its coz of the same malukula chemicals he adds to his beef.
you need to have your head checked.
go to church. what have you smoked?
Share whatever you smoke with Mumembe, it may just help him think straight
Any Normal consumer can not support Zambeef in light of these allegations. Infact Government must ensure that ‘they’ themselves test the beef and not Zambeef. It would be very foolish of this country to rely on a profit driven Corporations test like Zambeef!
As for me I am going to sue this stupid company!
I doubt the sanity of this Chabala Chanda dude. How is removing the allegedly contaminated products from the shelves tantamount to obstructing justice? You cannot on one hand claim that the products are chemically adulterated and still make them available to the general public. It was also very irresponsible for the environmental authorities to conduct their tests in secrecy. The standard procedure should be to test the products at the point of entry. That is what civilised and responsible governments do.
If you read carefuly the products where removed to be re-labelled for re-sale
How much do these giovt officials were the meat products are paid.Am sure an ekement of corruption is involved.THank you for embalming our bodies because we can not afford.God bless u.
Government tests must be respected a priori by Zambeef. That is the way to establish a good working relationship. Any form of arrogance, disrespect, indifference, stubbornness or the like will exacerbate an already volatile situation. It is reasonable for Zambeef to start bt apologizing unconditionally. Then Zambeef must start the process of confidence building on the market. Food industries are generally sensitive. These industries require collaboration and team work and hard.
Zambia the land of opportunity for this once average Irish farmer Francis Grogan now turned Beef Baron, now he thinks he knows it all.
meattradenewsdaily.co.uk/news/011010/zambia___irish_beef_baron_francis_grogan.aspx
meattradenewsdaily.co.uk/news/011010/zambia___irish_beef_baron_francis_grogan.aspx
This whole thing stinks PF all over it! incompetence at the highest level. They want to turn the issue into a circus the same way they have turned RB’s corruption cases to be prosecuted by the media rather than the courts of Law. They are itching to close close down Zambeef at any cost because they feel it’s the source of HH’s wealth. I would advise the CEO of the company to soldier on and not let these ministers intimidate you. Is it not government’s job to check all imported meat in the country?
You are talking out of your backside!! These are satas friends -when Mr Irwin died sata and chikwanda where the pall bearers and when Mugabe visited last year they took him to Huntley farm owned by zambeef,when sata was in London 2 yrs ago zambeef were part of his delegation
Your point being? They may be Sata’s friends but they are HH’s business partners.
Gonclave everything you contribute is politics whether its not political subject you have to exaggerate and speculate to make a story out of nothing. I really wonder whether your mindset is politically engineered such that any topic to you is politics. There is generally speaking your contribution lacks maturity and integrity. Inferiority complex is dearly driving you insane. There was a time we had contributors like Kuku, Maestro and other when each topic was discussed with evidence based arguments. We used to bring issues either agree or disagree in an open way and not politicking
Its government institutions that safe guard food standards. Get rid of your ignorance man! I suggest you resit your Grade 9 Civics examinations! You should be ashamed of yourself for writing trash!
Gonclave everything you contribute is politics whether its not political subject you have to exaggerate and speculate to make a story out of nothing. I really wonder whether your mindset is politically engineered such that any topic to you is politics. generally speaking your contribution lacks maturity and integrity. Inferiority complex is dearly driving you insane. There was a time we had contributors like Kuku, Maestro and other when each topic was discussed with evidence based arguments. We used to bring issues either agree or disagree in an open way and not politicking
Shameful that some prominent Zambians associated with this organization could have allowed the diabolical situation to obtain. Obviously for a few pieces of silver, anything, ,including ‘murder’, goes for such people!
The arrogance of this Grogan chap is not only insulting to Zambian Government Institutions but in fact outrightly racist! Who is he to tell us who should be doing tests for us? We wont and MUST not recognise their tests either – why should we? Those are his business contacts and anything from them is fake! In fact the samples he sent to them would be highly questionable because they would have been carefully selected from non imported (Zambian products) which are not contaminated! This chap is an IDI.OT!!
Why cant we shut Zambeef until such a time when things are under control. We cant manage risking Peoples lives like this. Let the powers that be do something like yesterday……
Lord have mercy, of all things sure…uku la tulisha umuti wafi tumbi.No wonder cancer is allover. Eye i thing cervical cancer is one of the results. Gosh!!! This so unbelievable.
It is menacingly paradoxical, it is a conundrum of choice between maintaining the so called investor confidence and good investment climate to attract FDI on one hand and checking the good of our public health in the country. What one can see directly if we are to argue on the side of ZAMBEEF (ZAMEMBALMERS) is that they contribute to our national purse through payment of corporate taxes as well as salary payments to those of our brothers and sisters employed there. These are benefits we crave for. However, the health burden on our citizens and our health system once people begin to fall sick, (cancers and other tumors) can only be imagined. There is need to act responsibly and find the right solutions. Let’s increase the capacity of our institution to check all food outlets. No sacred…
First of why should Zambia Import beef from outside the country? isn’t there enough cattle in Zambia? I mean if this boarders on suspicions and GMOs and what not, then maybe Zambeef should be buying local beef and brandish it as zambeef. That would lessen the suspicion levels among the general populace. Am sure Zambia’s cattle can sustain the nation’s meat eating population. That also creates local jobs.
Its easy to catch schemers and hired Government thugs. He’s already talking about evidence not standing in the Zambian courts of law. Who’s told him Zambeef wants to sue him? And when did he become the spokesman for the courts? Or is it a signal that the courts have already been instructed to find Zambeef guilty?
I have no iota of confidence in the Zambian Government bodies. What about the behavior of the registrar of societies when he wanted to annihilate a political party in order to win a higher paying Government job?
You can’t secretly pick up packages of meat, secretly test them and then publicly declare Zambeef guilty. Doesn’t add up to a critical mind like mine. To a kaponya,it makes a whole load of sense!
Zambeef or Zamhoarses must be investigated to the last letter. Imagine these guys import offals as an offering for the poor Zambians. The insides organs are the direct receiver of chemicals , no wonder Zambia is number one in cervical cancer because of eating contaminated offals. So sad indeed.
Too many ba Kabova in this PF or could it be the extended family sent abroad with immediate effect but suffering the side effects of village to city life.
I don’t know what to say or rather where to start from but firstly i would want to thank God for given us love, care and peace in Zambia and i think if there is one Country which is very, very, if you want you can say toooooo very peaceful is Zambia, but i think its very bad to be very good and too peaceful at times because people go to far. secondly, I am ask all Zambians to be truthful and strong in fighting for what is right, the truth is that Zambeef is guilty. If Zambeef was not guilty why would they say there are removing imported meat on the market that tells us all, that ba…f…k lyabo Zambeef have accepted. But my question is why is it that zambeef is still operating?
Ba Zambia mwalichilamo bu chakolwa!! you drink alchohol too much that you cant even tell the difference between Catle meat and Horse meat, testy and bitter meat i think even human meat you have already tested, shame!!
The only person who cannot doubt the results from this laboratory is the one who is ill informed. This lab is in such a bad sample and uses absolute equipment which is never calibrated, hence its evidence cannot stand in a fair justice system at all. Please do not talk about man power at this institution at all…. the issue of competence is bad, there is need for improving funding to this institution if it is to serve it intended purpose.