In response to the recent horse meat scandal rocking Europe, Qatar plans to impose a quality certification process on meat importers “soon,” officials have said.

Once the process is implemented, meat and meat products will be required to bear laboratory certification to ensure that they are unadultered and disease- and contamination-free, a Ministry of Environment official told the Peninsula:

“There are already rules in place in Qatar to ensure the safety and quality of imported meat but the horsemeat scandal has underlined the need for making the rules even stricter,” he added.

There is no decision to impose a ban on the import of meat from Europe at the moment, since the issue is about mixing horsemeat with beef, which is not sure to pose any health hazard, it has been learnt

Previously, officials said the rules in Qatar were tough enough to ensure that horse meat never entered the country, which some Doha News readers reacted to with skepticism.

Commenter NIMH said:

So how exactly do they test the meat in cans? I can’t say I believe this, to know if something contains horse meat you first have to go looking for it. Are they trying to tell us they have been testing beef products for horse meat for years?

And on Facebook, Owen Watson said:

i assume he reached this conclusion after a forensic examination of all import documentation and where necessary lab checks of a sample of goods.

Soon enough, looks like!

Thoughts?

Credit: Photo by Gene Hunt