Saturday, July 21, 2007 Local police ready to confiscate White Rabbit candies By Nicolas C. Delfin
AFTER cautions were made against the purchase and sale of Chinese food products with dangerous chemical content, Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (Noppo) Director Rosendo Franco on Friday said they will act as soon as the Bureau of Food and Drugs (Bfad) will formally request for their assistance.
"We will conduct proper actions and confiscate any food products which are not Bfad approved that are now circulating in the province of Negros Occidental," Franco said.
Earlier, Bfad-Negros Regulation Officer Maricon Gebrusin-Dimatulac warned the public of buying and selling Chinese food products which have been discovered to have formaldehyde content as part of its ingredients. One of them is the famous White Rabbit candies.
Others are also the Bairong grape biscuits and Yong Kang Foods Grape Biscuit.
According to Dimatulac, formaldehyde in its lesser potency can cause skin infections such as eczema.
Worse, higher intake of such drug can cause cancer to the brain, lung and blood.
She also added that sale of white rabbit made from Chinese food companies is now "technically illegal" after the Bfad higher office in Manila made warnings
and proper reprimand and revocation of Bfad licenses of the Chinese food company.
Just recently, reports from Manila disclosed that almost all White Rabbit candies that are made in China, were pulled out of the markets after they were found out to be positive of formaldehyde.
Dimatulac clarified that Bfad has no police powers to force the distributors to pull out the products from the market but a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the local police was already made to check now the proliferation of food items containing all kinds of hazardous ingredients.
Any violator of such may face apprehension or stiffer penalty as specified under the law, she added.
