BFAD to expand safety tests to non-dairy products

by CARMELA FONBUENA, abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak | 10/07/2008 7:44 PM

Printer-friendly version | Send to friend

Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) chief Leticia Gutierrez has asked food manufacturing companies that use ingredients from China to submit to the bureau a complete list of their raw materials.

BFAD legal officer Emil Polig said Gutierrez gave the instruction verbally in one recent meeting of the BFAD.

“It’s a new directive. It’s an offshoot of the melamine scare,” he told abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak after a hearing on toxic food imports in the House of Representatives.

Milk products contaminated with melamine recently caused at least 50,000 children in China to fall ill, many with kidney stones.

Last week, the BFAD announced that two milk brands from China--Greenfood Yili Fresh Milk and Mengnui Drink--tested positive for melamine. The bureau is still conducting tests on other brands.

“For now, we are focusing on the milk and milk products. We are focusing first on the ban. But gradually, the number of products will increase as we widen our scope. We are not only covering milk and milk products,” said Joyce Carunay, chief of BFAD’s product safety division.

Polig and Carunay attended Tuesday's joint hearing of the committee on agriculture and food and committee on health.

The meeting was intended to help congressmen draft bills that would strengthen laws on imported food products and food safety.

House committee on agriculture and food chairman Palawan Rep. Abraham Mitra expressed concern over the possibility that China would dump its export surpluses to the Philippines because of the US financial crisis.

With the US economic slowdown and reduced consumer spending, the US, a major trade partner of China, is expected to reduce its food imports.

Polig said they will write the manufacturing companies to inform them of the new procedure of BFAD on full disclosure of raw materials used in food products.

In the same hearing, National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) executive director Jane Bacayo also announced that they will test for melamine luncheon meat from China being sold in the market.

The NMIS is taking the lead role on this since ensuring the safety of meat and meat products has been transferred from BFAD to NMIS.

Consumers have made similar safety calls for cosmetic products.

as of 10/07/2008 7:46 PM