NZ meat blamed for fat problem

By SCOTT MacLEOD

Pacific Island doctors say New Zealand is dumping low-grade meat on their people, making them the fattest on the planet.

The girth of Tongans, Fijians, Samoans and other Pacific Islanders has grown over the past 20 years.

One reason is that Islanders exercise less than they used to, but four doctors and two academics say the problem is heightened by NZ selling cheap fatty meat such as mutton and lamb flaps - the loose bits on the end of chops - to the Islands.

NZ meat industry representatives reject the dumping claims, saying sheep flaps are used in this country in sausages and rolled roasts and are relatively lean if cooked properly.

The academics, who have worked in the Islands for the World Health Organisation, are an adjunct professor at Deakin University in Melbourne, Garry Egger, and an epidemiologist at the Auckland School of Medicine, Rod Jackson.

Their views are backed by doctors who have worked in Samoa, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Tonga who said yesterday that NZ was dumping fatty meat in the Islands that would never be sold to a Western country.

Professor Egger said sheep flaps had become part of Islanders' diet only over the past 15 years but were now regarded as "traditional" food.

It was hypocritical of New Zealand to give the Islands aid money on the one hand and make their people sick with rubbish food on the other.

Dr Jackson said NZ was one of several countries sending fatty meat to the Islands, which was "exporting our [heart disease] epidemic".

He had urged Pacific Governments to ban the imports.

Island doctors the Herald spoke to said sheep flaps were a big health problem but felt it was up to their own people and Governments to improve diet education and possibly ban the imports.

Lealiifano Dr Iopu Tanielu of Samoa said New Zealand sent poorer quality meat to his country than it sold to Western countries.

Dr Ram Raju of Nadi, Fiji, said New Zealand was "dumping" the flaps and he urged his Government to impose a ban.

"We do seem to be getting second-grade lamb here. I don't see this grade in New Zealand."

Dr Andrew Korinihona, who worked in Papua New Guinea for 18 years, said he knew businessmen who "literally brought in containers of it from NZ. It's basically fat".

Dr Luisa Fonua of Tonga said her people were addicted to mutton flaps and it had become "one of the big reasons for obesity". The meat New Zealand sent to Tonga would "normally be sold as pet food".

But meat exporters Richmond NZ and Meat NZ said the dumping claims were wrong because flaps were also sold to China, Europe and the United States.

Richmond chief John Loughlin said Europeans and Chinese trimmed the fat off flaps to use them in kebabs, and New Zealanders ate them in sausages.

Latest figures show that 52 per cent of New Zealanders are overweight, compared with between 67 per cent and 90 per cent of Pacific Islanders living in NZ, Tonga and Nauru.

nzherald.co.nz/health