Ho Chi Minh City park rangers seize more than a hundred kilograms of wild boar and mouse-deer meat at a restaurant in Thu Duc District

The hundreds of restaurants in Ho Chi Minh City that illegally serve wild animal dishes frequently use decomposed meat that is extremely hazardous, experts warn.

“They either sell decomposed meat or that which has been preserved in poisonous chemicals,” he added.

He said raids on many restaurants in HCMC have found that most of the wild meat being illegally sold was decomposed.

“In some cases, the park rangers had to buy hormones to preserve the meat as it started to smell right after it was seized.”

Cuong said they had recently arrested a man carrying six frozen bear paws in Tan Binh District and they stank badly as soon as the ice thawed.

In another case, the park rangers sought permission to destroy more than 100 kilograms of wild boar and mouse-deer meat instead of keeping it as evidence because of the rotten odor.

“Those who eat the dishes wouldn’t know [it was decayed meat] because they treat the meat with a number of chemicals before cooking,” he added.

An illegal wild meat trader, Nhan, told Thanh Nien Wednesday that dead wildlife were often kept in the forest for days by hunters before being carried to HCMC.

He estimated restaurants in the southern metro could buy several tons of such wild meat, mainly poached from the Nam Cat Tien Forest, which covers parts of Dong Nai, Lam Dong and Binh Phuoc provinces.

“A hunt sometimes last for days and hunters cannot carry big animals they’ve shot down,” he said. “They often wrap the animals and bury them somewhere to store and take them later on return trips.”

Carcasses are often stored for between one or two days before being sold to illegal traders at the jungle’s edge.

“The meat is then frozen and carried to restaurants in HCMC,” Nhan said.

He also said hunters and traders did not use chemicals to store the meat, but restaurants could be using them to treat the decomposed meat.

He admitted too that wild meat was very dangerous for digestion.

“It’s not the chemicals but possible strange viruses or bacteria that matter,” he said. “Because the meat is illegal, it is smuggled and totally out of range of supervision by cooking safety and hygiene authorities.”

More bad news

Huynh Le Thai Hoa, head of the HCMC Health Department’s food hygiene and safety division, said bacterial infection is likely to occur very soon after the animal is slaughtered.

Former deputy head of HCMC Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, Nguyen Xuan Mai, said: “The meat will show signs of decomposition four hours after the animal dies, start smelling between 12 and 24 hours later and get really rotten within 24 hours.”

“The bacteria on the animal skin could attack the meat and human digestion of such meat could cause poisoning, diarrhea or gradual concentration of toxic substances in the body,” she said.

Huynh Huu Tho of the HCMC Animal Health Division also said bacteria including salmonella and E.coli would infect the meat within a day after the animal was slaughtered or killed.

He also warned many restaurants were using chemicals poisonous to humans to preserve or treat the decomposed meat.

“Hormones that are used to preserve meat can cause stomach aches, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, cardiac collapse and even death,” he said.

Tho also said experiments on mice have found some hormones could cause cancer.

Wild beef

HCMC park rangers said they also found many restaurants deceiving guests, selling beef as wild meat.

Several inspections of a notorious wild meat market on Pham Viet Chanh Street in District 1 also found a few stalls selling wild meat, with the rest actually selling beef touted as wild meat.

At a recent market inspection led by Le Thanh Liem, director of HCMC Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, many traders were found presenting beef as wild meat.

Reported by Thanh Nien staff