Culinary Tourism Potentially Boosts Meat Consumption in Solo

The need for meat for public consumption is increasing along with the increasing number of people in Indonesia. Our society consumes meat almost every day, but most of them do not really pay attention to how the process of making the meat available gets to their hands. Public knowledge about healthy, quality and safe meat for consumption is still low. Many of them only focus on getting cheap meat without thinking whether the meat they buy is safe or dangerous to life, they also don't know and even don't want to know whether the meat they buy comes from a chain of meat supply processes that guarantee quality and safety. Many people assume that the Slaughterhouse/Slaughterhouse (RPH) is an unattractive place and even tends to make a bad feeling, so they choose not to know the details that occur in it. Likewise, slaughterhouses prefer not to explore their activities in order to avoid controversy.
Based on SNI 01-6159-1999 it is stated that RPH is a building complex with a special design that meets certain technical and hygienic requirements and is used as a place for slaughtering slaughtered animals other than poultry for public consumption. The Central Bureau of Statistics of the City of Surakarta every month collects data on livestock slaughter from the Slaughterhouse owned by the Surakarta City Agriculture Service, namely the Cattle RPH and Pig RPH which are located at Jalan Jagalan Surakarrta and the Goat RPH which is located at Wiropaten, Pasar Kliwon, Surakarta. In 2020, cattle slaughter of 2,386 heads decreased by 24.9% compared to 2019, 23,409 goats decreased by 19.9% ​​and 3,775 pigs decreased by 8.7%. It is undeniable that the impact of the pandemic has devastated all sectors of the economy, including the livestock sector. However, the contribution of livestock slaughter in the Surakarta City RPH to Central Java is still relatively high, for cattle slaughter of 2.35%, goats reaching 58.15% and pigs at 20.97% of the total Central Java figure.

Seeing the large contribution of goat slaughter in this city is not something new because the city of Solo is indeed famous for its culinary, especially the variety of mutton dishes that are ready to pamper the tongue of every tourist who comes to Solo. The city of Solo is one of the big cities in Central Java, but there are few natural tourist destinations that can be visited, because instead culinary tourism is the main goal of the many tourists who come to this city. Culinary wealth in this city is a magnet for a number of tourists, especially the culinary tengkleng and goat satay. In fact, in almost every corner of the area with an area of ​​44.04 Km2 and a population of 522,364 people, there are many sellers of goat satay, especially in the Pasar Kliwon area which has the highest population density in this city.

With so much potential for meat consumption in the community, the government sets policies to protect meat consumers, one of which is government policy related to SOP (Standard Operational Procedure) for slaughtering livestock at Slaughterhouses. Good management and handling of animals in abattoirs is expected to ensure that the meat slaughtered for distribution complies with ASUH requirements (Safe, Healthy, Whole and Halal). Safe is free from germs. Healthy is meat has substances that are useful for health and growth. Whole is meat not mixed with other parts of the animal or other animals. Halal is an animal slaughtered according to Islamic law. Hopefully in the future our society will be more selective in choosing and processing food before serving it for family consumption.”