A store was closed down in eastern Lebanon for selling meat products that do not meet the minimum health requirements.
The Zahle Office of the Bekaa Regional Department revealed in a statement on Monday that the store was closed down in line with the efforts to ensure food security, in coordination with representatives of the Health and Food Authorities in Bekaa.
The person running the Bar-Elias-based store, a Syrian national, had been storing and selling refrigerated meat that is “not suitable for human consumption at all,” according to the Zahle Office’s statement.
The meat was “randomly packed and smelled bad.”
Following the incident, the Zahle Office inspected a restaurant and a bakery owned by the same person, in the village of Anjar.
It turned out that the restaurant had “a quantity of frozen meat placed outside the fridges and that smelled bad.” Beef and sheep meat were packed with chicken in the same dinnerware, a serious health hazard.
The meat products seized from the store and the restaurant were accordingly destroyed, the two establishments were sealed with red wax, and their owner was arrested.
In light of the incident, the Bekaa Regional Department has called on people to inform it of any fraud operations they might come across, pledging to continue working on preserving their food security.
