‘Adobo standard’ only for international marketing, DTI clarifies

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) on Sunday clarified that the proposed adobo standard will only be for international promotion purposes, and not a mandatory standard for local households.

According to the DTI, the suggestion to have a standard recipe for Filipino staple dishes such as adobo is in efforts to come up with a traditional recipe that will be promoted overseas.

“Obviously, this is not a mandatory standard because there are thousands or millions of different ‘lutong adobo’,” the DTI said in an emailed statement.

“The attempt is to define what we will promote internationally and not redefining what adobo is to different people now,” it added, in all caps.

The department last week said its Bureau of Philippine Standards (BPS) established a technical committee that will standardize Filipino dishes, with the first being adobo.

The technical committee started developing a Philippine National Standard for adobo in May, with the “Kulinarya: A Guidebook to Philippine Cuisine” as main reference.

The proposal to have a national standard for adobo has earned negative feedback online, with questions as to the priority of the government amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Aside from adobo, the BPS is also looking to set a standard for other dishes such as sinigang, lechon, and sisig.

The technical committee is made up of Via Mare’s Glenda Barreto as Chairman, Food Writers Association of the Philippines chef Myrna Segismundo, and Hotel and Restaurant Association of the Philippines’ Raoul Roberto Goco.

The committee also counts as members representatives from the University of the Philippines Diliman’s College of Home Economics, Philippine Chamber of Food Manufacturers Inc., Philippine Association of Meat Processors Inc., Department of Science and Technology - Industrial Technology Development Institute, Philippine Association of Food Technologists Inc., LTB Chefs Association, Asia Society Philippines, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, and the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

For its part, the DTI said there is “nothing to worry on this” and the measure is part of the groundwork to develop more creative industry exports.

“To many Filipinos, the best adobo is the one ‘cooked at home’ or cooked by their parents or lola’,” it said.

“There is a lot of creativity going on and this must be encouraged,” it added.

The DTI’s BPS is mandated to develop, promulgate, and implement standards for all products in the Philippines. It is tasked to promote standardization activities in the country and to ensure the manufacture, production, and distribution of quality products. — BM, GMA News