Supermarket group to post DOH melamine test results

MANILA, Philippines - A group of supermarket operators will start posting on their stores the partial list of results that the Health department had just released in connection to the government testing of China-made food products. Steven Cua, president of the Philippine Amalgamated Supermarkets Association (PAGASA) Inc, said in a radio interview that they would post the names of the 30 milk and milk-based product brands in their stores nationwide. Of the 30 names, the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) found two of them – Greenfood Yili Milk Drink and Mengniu Drink - to have industrial chemical melamine. The government has already ordered an importation and sales ban against the two brands. “We will inform all our members to do that (posting) for sure so that the public will be enlightened," Cua said. “The consumers, retailer, distributors, and importers, are all getting confused because of the volume of news from in and out of the country," he added. Cua said he would also be urging their member store owners to even “cut out" and display in their stores public announcements placed by certain food firms on newspapers that assured the quality of their respective products. The PAGASA president however insisted they would not take out from their shelves any China-made food products unless proven by the BFAD as being contaminated. “I’ve been informing our members not to pull out unless talagang proven na mayroon… [The consumers should not] buy the products for now but don’t take it off the shelves," Cua said. Despite the PAGASA’s initiative, Cua still lamented how the whole milk scare has affected a number of companies in the food industry, especially those whose products had already been pulled out of the market. “Natatakot ang tao kasi kapag binalik mo iyon at sinabing safe na iyan, sa tingin mo may bibili pa niyan?" he said. Cua said he wondered why the public has so much fear on melamine when the chemical should be considered “unharmful" in the first place. He even cited research studies as claiming that melamine at certain levels and certain periods does not pose health hazards to its human consumers. “Hindi poison ang melamine over a period of time. We have anti-bodies to flush out toxins," said Cua of melamine which is said to cause kidney stones, especially among infants. He also allayed fears on food products using China-made milk as an ingredient like candies and cookies. He said melamine concentration, if ever, in these types of food are much lower. “Hindi siya ganun ka-concentrated. Hindi ganun ka-puro ang melamine content kasi part lang ang gatas as ingredient. Hindi siya iyong mismong produkto," Cua said. He encouraged the Health department to follow a single “melamine reference standard" – which indicates the amount of the chemical the human body can tolerate - so as to have results consistent with other countries’ respective laboratory testing on similar milk products. “Let’s be careful because [the results of the tests] would affect a lot of industries, companies, and employment. If it’s poison then we take it out immediately. Pero if it’s something which we could still study and balance off health and the economy then let’s do it," Cua said. The PAGASA has 116 member supermarkets nationwide.- Mark Merueñas, GMANews.TV