Non-certified beef, horse & kangaroo meat allegedly sold in M'sia as halal products: M'sian media

Watch what you eat.

Sulaiman Daud | December 22, 2020, 04:12 PM

Meat sold for consumption in Malaysia that was marked as halal beef turned out not to have been certified.

And not only was non-certified meat brought into Malaysia and passed off as halal products, some of them weren't even beef.

Instead, some of the frozen products were made from horse and kangaroo meat.

New Straits Times investigation

A special investigation by the New Straits Times (NST) in Malaysia made the startling allegations.

On Dec. 21, it alleged that government officials from at least four different agencies were working with an external cartel to bring non-certified meat into Malaysia.

The meat, sourced from countries like Bolivia, Brazil and Mexico, were then passed off as halal-certified products in Malaysia.

NST also alleged that the government officials received monetary bribes and even sex as forms of payment for looking the other way.

Officers would allegedly sign off on meat products at slaughterhouses abroad without checking to see if they meet Malaysia's health and halal standards.

Once that was done, the meat products would be imported into Malaysia, where other officials working at the ports were also allegedly bribed by the cartel.

According to NST's source, the products would be taken to warehouses were they were mixed with actual halal-certified meat, packaged with fake halal certification logos, and then sold on the market.

This was allegedly done to avoid the costs associated with importing halal meat from certified sources, thereby making a profit.

Where's the beef?

If that wasn't bad enough, further investigations by NST revealed that the meat sold was not just beef.

In an update on Dec. 22NST alleged that along with poor-quality beef, horse and kangaroo meat were being brought in and passed off as halal beef.

These were cheaper to obtain and translated into increased profits.

The cartel allegedly imported these fraudulent frozen meat products three times in a week.

According to the NST, Malaysia's Customs Department will conduct an internal investigation following the publication of the story.

Back in 2013, furniture company Ikea halted sales of its meatballs in the UK after testing revealed horse DNA in them.

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