Summary:
CHENNAI: Food safety officials on Saturday seized 2,190 kg of “unwholesome meat” packed in 20 polystyrene boxes at Egmore railway station.Based on specific information provided, a special team led by Dr R Kathiravan of the Tamil Nadu Food Safety Department, Chennai, visited the station and found the parcels on platform 5. Some of the meat didn’t have legs but had long tails, the officials said, adding it may have been ‘dressed up’ to avoid being identified as that of a specific animal. The men immediately abandoned the parcels and fled.The RPF personnel then alerted the food safety department and a team arrived at the station.After the seizure, food safety officials said that if undetected it would have been sold in the city as ‘Rajasthan meat’ for just 150 per kilogram. Samples of the seized meat have been sent to the Madras Veterinary College at Vepery for a thorough check, they added.Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel on platform, assailed by the stink emnating from the parcels being carried out of the railway station, asked those handling them to stop. Mutton sells for 600- 650 a kg in the city, according to the area.Preliminary inquiries revealed that the parcels, each packed in ice, had been booked at Gandhidham in Gujarat and were loaded on to the Jodhpur-Mannargudi Express at Jodhpur junction in Rajasthan..