1.5 Tons of Illegal Meat Seized

Israel Independence Day is marked by outdoor activities, and especially outdoor barbecues – and it’s a big day for thieves and fraudsters who are looking to dump illegal, treif, and old meat on the Israeli public. Officials on Monday confiscated 1.5 tons of treif meat, which smugglers had brought into Israel with the intention of passing it off as kosher.

In a joint operation, officials of the Health Ministry and police discovered the meat in the backyard of a house in the Arab town of Tira. Some of the meat was brought in from Palestinian Authority areas, and none of it had passed the health inspections required for meat to be sold in Israel. The meat was also being held in unsafe conditions. Police arrested the owners of the property, who said that the meat was to be repacked and sold in the center of the country. The meat itself was confiscated and destroyed.

Officials said that the meat would likely have ended up featured at barbecues.

Officials said that the best way to avoid these dangers was for consumers to ensure that the proper certifications, both from a kosher and health perspective, were displayed prominently in stores where they shop.

Ro’i Kliger of the Agriculture Ministry said that the case was “very serious, as are all cases of smuggled meat, illegal slaughter, and sale of unsupervised meat. We have a dedicated staff that is constantly searching for violators. Consumers should only buy meat at legal, supervised places.”