How to know healthy pomo (2)

Last time, we started looking at the popularity of pomo. We will get to the identification of good ones today.

Health practitioners have confirmed that the use of tyres, plastics and rubber to burn and roast while processing pomo or the use of chemicals like formalin exposes consumers to toxic deposits capable of causing serious health conditions like cancer, liver and kidney damage.

However, these issues and health fears have not, and might not, stop the popularity of pomo among Nigerians. Nothing is about to knock this “meat” off the lofty place it has taken on our dining tables.

So all we can do is try to eat healthy and “safe” ones. Now, finally, we have arrived at how to recognise healthy pomo.

Quick Hacks to identify unhealthy processed pomo

The Flies Check

A chemically processed pomo, especially when formalin is involved, would not attract flies.

The main function of the chemical is to keep corpses fresh and keeping flies away means the body, or pomo in this case, is chemical fresh.

So if flies stay away from pomo, you too should stay away from that pomo.

The Colour

There are basically two colours of cow skin. As much as you can, avoid the black ones. This is mainly because it is difficult to detect if it has been treated with the chemicals or not.

So it’s advisable to approach brown pomo as a first step. Thereafter you can apply the flies test.

The Smell

So, before buying, feel the pomo with your hands and stylishly smell your fingers. Once it has an irritating smell, flee.

Yes, flee. A cow’s smell cannot be described as ‘irritating’. So why should its product be irritating? So flee any strange smell.

The Size

The size of a cow cannot be reflected unnecessarily in the pomo. So when the pomo that seller is seducing you to buy is suspiciously big, please be suspicious.

Most times, chemicalised pomo is unexplainably thick. There have been stories that other things are done to pomo to make it thick and attractive.

Besides making it attractive, they also use these toxic materials to preserve the pomo. So flee.

Alternatively…

Well, as we agreed pomo’s place in our meals is secured. But if you want to be really safe from these foreign bodies that mean traders introduce into our bodies, just stay away from pomo.

Alternatively, buy a cow leg and you have a good substitute for good old pomo. It is safer and a much healthier option.

‘Gastronomic indiscipline’

And so the importance of pomo to Nigerians played out in the National Assembly years ago.

An academician-turned-politician raised a motion seeking to ban eating of pomo in Nigeria. His grouse was that we were consuming raw materials for the leather industry.

He went further to describe the eating of pomo as “gastronomic indiscipline”. The Lagos boys in the Senate were provoked. Two of them stood up to defend us.

They said as Lagos boys (although they were representing their home states) they knew the importance of pomo to Nigerians. That was how the motion died.

So, pomo for life! Healthy one!