NEW YORK – A food safety inspector noticed an interesting special posted in the front window of a market in Queens: 12 beefy armadillos.
In Brooklyn, inspectors found 15 pounds of iguana meat at a West Indian market and 200 pounds of cow lungs for sale at another store. A West African grocery in Manhattan sold smoked rodent meat from a refrigerated display case.
All of it was headed for the dinner table – and all of it was illegal.
Authorities say the discoveries are part of a larger trend in which markets across New York are buying meat and other foods from unregulated sources and selling them to an immigrant population accustomed to more exotic fare. State regulators have stepped up enforcement, confiscating 65 percent more food – 1.6 million pounds – through September than they did in all of 2005.
In this ethnically diverse city, everything from turtles and fish paste to frogs and duck feet makes its way onto people's plates.
“At one time or another, we've probably seen about everything,” said Joseph Corby, director of the state's Division of Food Safety and Inspection.
Inspectors in Corby's agency, which is working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to prevent illicit food from reaching store shelves, are now targeting warehouses that receive imported products in addition to checking out retailers.
Food taken by inspectors lacked proper labeling or didn't come from a government-licensed or inspected source. Other food was destroyed because of the way it was processed or prepared, such as chicken smoked in the home and placed on sale. Such food can spread salmonella or botulinum.
“Bush meat,” or anything killed in the wild, is typically illegal. Eating endangered or threatened species such as gorilla and chimpanzee – whose meat is occasionally found in New York – is against the law.
But turtles, frogs, iguanas and armadillos can be sold if the meat comes from a licensed and inspected facility. “We have yet to find too many of these places,” Corby said.
Sanitary inspection reports dating to 2001 reveal a widespread appetite for potentially dangerous food.
On a bustling stretch of Manhattan's Chinatown, the Bor Kee Food Market has been caught selling unidentified red meat and mysterious fish paste, which is used in Asian recipes. Down the street at the Dahing Seafood Market, inspectors have found frogs being sold from an unapproved source. Next door, authorities saw crates of turtles and a large tub of bullfrogs without proper invoices.
The rules often get lost in translation.
At the West African Grocery – where “smoked rodent” was found – the owner failed to explain why he was selling the meat, saying he couldn't speak English.
But he apparently could read the sanitary-inspection report and the word “rodent.” “I don't know what that is,” the owner said. “I don't sell that here.”
Sung Soo Kim, president of the Korean American Small Business Service Center of New York, says it's hard to change centuries-old eating habits. He runs a state-approved food-safety education program and has delivered seminars to the Korean community about food laws.
