In a bid to prevent recycled meat from entering the markets, the city administration Tuesday called on hotel and restaurant managers to better process any meat they discard.

Governor Fauzi Bowo said he had asked the tourism agency to coordinate with hotels.

"We will monitor the hotel waste. The agency should warn these eating establishments that anyone who is negligent in disposing of the meat will be punished," he said.

Fauzi made the comments following news from West Jakarta, where scavengers had taken meat, some rotten, from a dump in Cengkareng and resold it to a cottage industry. The discarded meat was then processed into meatballs and other types of processed meat and retailed.

It was reported most of the meats came from hotels and restaurants.

Tourism agency head Arie Budhiman said his agency had told the Indonesian Association of Hotels and Restaurants (PHRI) to monitor their food waste.

"We don't know at the moment what the correct treatment for waste is exactly. Perhaps we'll ask them to destroy the excess food using equipment which hotels and restaurants commonly use," he said.

The head of PHRI's Jakarta chapter, Krishnadi, said the association supported the city's request.

"PHRI members have agreed to shred the meat before sending it to the dump," he said as quoted by beritajakarta.com.

According to data from the Jakarta statistics agency, there were 306 hotels in 2006, consisting of 135 classified hotels, 135 unclassified hotels, and 36 "other types" of accommodation.

Arie said his agency's blaming the recent meat debacle on the hotels might not have been fair to the hotels since the meat was already outside their purview. He added the so-called garbage meat may have come from individual households.

"First of all, the sanitation agency should provide sophisticated garbage containers," he said.

After the investigations in Cengkareng, West Jakarta Police confiscated the meat and two meat processors from the cottage industry, which could process 50 kilograms of meat per day. Police have also detained suspects.

Chaidir Taufik, West Jakarta husbandry and fishery agency head, said after the police had taken 5 kgs of rotten meat for evidence and further laboratory research, his agency destroyed the remaining 50 kgs in Dharma Jaya slaughterhouse in Kapuk, Cengkareng on Monday.

"We have deployed our staff in 68 neighborhood markets and 24 supermarkets," Chaidir said, as quoted by beritajakarta.com.

The price of beef has been rising during the fasting month of Ramadan, from Rp 12,000 (US$1.30) to Rp 60,000 per kg. In several markets the price has reached Rp 72,000.