Lovers of braised pork rice may consider getting out of bed early today, as the winner of last year's national braised pork contest is handing out free pork rice to its first 200 customers.
The two-day free pork rice promotion at Long-en Braised Pork (龍恩) in Taipei County's Jhonghe City (中和) began yesterday as part of the Council of Agriculture's efforts to calm public concerns about the safety of consuming pork in the face of a global swine flu outbreak.
“Consumers should use action to support domestic pork,” said Hsu Tien-lai (??, director of the council's Department of Animal Industry.
“Neither the US Centers for Disease Control nor the WHO has found any direct links between swine flu and the hog industry,” Hsu said.
“People will not be infected by eating pork,” he said.
To observe the strictest precautions, Hsu said that Taiwanese pig farmers had been asked to refrain from visiting pig farms in regions that have been affected by the swine flu outbreak.
Farm owners are required to report signs of Influenza A(H1N1) — as the WHO now calls the new virus strain — infection in their pig stock, Hsu said.
Bowls of soy sauce braised pork were handed out to customers on a first-come, first-served basis yesterday, said Long-en's store manager surnamed Chen, adding that the 200 free servings were distributed in about 1.5 hours.
Asked if the swine flu scare had affected sales, Chen said media reports had affected business to a degree.
“However, we use Certified Agricultural Standards pork and fully cook the meat, so most of our customers know that our pork is safe to eat,” he said.
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