Petaling Jaya City Council has discovered at least four restaurants operating within the Bukit Gasing constituency have been serving mutton dishes that do not contain mutton. — Photo for illustration purpose only.
THE STAR EXCLUSIVE
YOUR mutton varuval might not contain mutton after all, according to an analysis done on several eateries throughout Petaling Jaya.
Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) Health and Environment director Dr Chitra N. Vadivellu confirmed that her staff from the Food Quality Control Unit had taken samples from both Indian and Indian-Muslim restaurants.
“Five months back, we received a report about another meat mixed with mutton being served in Indian restaurants.
“We acted on this and secured samples to send to the Chemistry Department for animal DNA analysis,” said Dr Chitra.
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She explained that her staff had gone in a week before securing the samples, informing the restaurant operators to properly label their dishes.
While Dr Chitra was told at first that the analysis would take only days, the process ended up lasting a few months, according to documents sighted by StarMetro.
A list dating from June 23 showed 10 samples taken from nine restaurants.
The same list showed four restaurants – three serving Indian cuisine and the fourth an Indian-Muslim establishment – testing negative for goat DNA.
“In our request to the Chemistry Department, we asked them to analyse if the meat samples had goat DNA,” said Dr Chitra, with the assumption that the analysis would also identify the correct animal DNA.
In a twist of bureaucratic procedure, it turns out that Dr Chitra’s department, if it wanted to ascertain the exact animal DNA for the four establishments in question, would have to request for a second analysis.
“Currently, we are awaiting the second lab results before we take legal action against the proprietors,” she said.
One possible cause for this could be the expensive price of local mutton as supply is limited.
If back in 2010, butchers were already substituting imported mutton for buffalo meat when mutton was hitting RM17 a kilo, prices are even higher now.
Current Malaysian Indian Restaurant Owners Association (Primas) chairman Muthusamy Thirumeni said mutton imported from Australia was now selling for RM25 a kilo, at wholesale prices.
“When you ask for local mutton, it’s even more expensive, at over RM40,” he said.
By contrast, beef was going for RM15 when StarMetro checked with Muthusamy on Sept 25.
“With these meat prices, you can understand why some restaurant operators would resort to substituting their meat to keep prices low,” said Muthusamy.
He added that if it was indeed proven that the restaurants had replaced mutton for other red meats, the authorities should take action against the restaurants they had identified to shore up consumer confidence.
“This is definitely not right. People are coming to our restaurants with the confidence that our dishes are definitely mutton.
“On top of that, there is religious sensitivity involved,” said Muthusamy.
Previously, Muthusamy said, Primas members had heard of customers voicing their suspicions about the meat served but nothing concrete had surfaced.
“If the meat was already falsely labelled even before it reached the restaurant, then perhaps it might not be the restaurant’s fault,” he added.
PJ councillor Sean Oon originally received the complaint back in February this year and decided to go to the Health and Environment departments with the complaint.
“We also asked for the Chemistry Department’s analysis report, from a blind analysis done with only numbered samples.
“Only MBPJ has the names to go with the sample numbers, so we are just waiting to confirm the exact animal DNA for those which are not mutton and proceed from there,” said Oon.
When asked about the second round of lab tests recently, Dr. Chitra said that if they were to submit a new sample, this would render the first results null and void.
However, based on the existing evidence,they would begin legal proceedings against the restaurants and had submitted the necessary documents to the council’s Legal Department.
“We are proceeding under Section 14 of the Food Act 1983, which prohibits against the sale of food not of the nature, substance or quality demanded,” said Dr. Chitra.
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