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BAKERS
joined the chorus at the weekend, assuring the public
their products do not contain ingredients from
China—especially milk and flour, the latter being the
latest food ingredient reported to be possibly
contaminated with nonfood and plastic-hardener melamine.
“None of
our members use flour or milk from China,” said
Simplicio Umali Jr., president of the Philippine Baking
Industry Group (Philbaking) and general manager of
Gardenia Bakeries Philippines, in a statement.
Products
of Philbaking members have 70 percent of the branded
bread sold through supermarkets and groceries. Among the
member-companies are Gardenia, Julie’s, Creative Bakers
(Walter and Real Good brand), Marby, Uncle George,
Sanmaru (Tiffany brand), Lemon Square, Suncrest, Fortune
bakeshop, French Baker, Le Couer de France, Cindys, Mr.
Donuts, Dunkin Donuts and Go Nuts Donuts.
Umali
said Philbaking member-companies source milk ingredients
from the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark and
Holland.
On the
other hand, flour is sourced from local flour millers,
who, in turn, assured the public they source their wheat
mainly from the US and occasionally, from Australia.
On
Friday the Federation of Philippine Industries (FPI)
called on the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) to extend
its monitoring and melamine check to imported flour.
Jesus
Arranza, FPI president, said that since melamine is used
to bring up the protein reading of food products, it is
not far-fetched that the Chinese wheat is also laced
with it.
“The
BFAD should already be checking Chinese flour in the
market because if what I fear is true, its effect would
be wider in scope as flour is used in bread,
particularly pan de sal that Filipinos love, noodles and
cakes,” said Arranza in a statement.
Arranza
also urged the BFAD to revise its operational scheme in
checking the quality and conformity to standards of
imported food and drugs.
Arranza
said BFAD customarily allows the marketing of imported
food and drugs after their importers have secured a
certification from the agency for the brands and
products that they will bring in. BFAD will then go to
the market to take samples for checking.
He said
BFAD should copy the style of the Bureau of Product
Standards, which scrutinizes the quality of the
shipments right at the port, or issue provisional
release and then have products tested at the warehouses
before they are given the clearance for distribution.
BFAD,
Arranza added, should also take samples in every batch
of imported food and drugs to ensure that no critical
changes were done in their formulations. (Max de Leon,
TJ Agcaoili) |
