Sunday, October 12, 2008
'Magic sugar' endangers kids, councilor warns
THE Bureau of Food and Drugs (Bfad) has been urged to also test juices, jellies and ice shakes that reportedly contain carcinogenic chemical-based sugar, or sodium cyclamate.
Cebu City Councilor Edgardo Labella said the sweetener, which is cheaper than sugar, is widely used, particularly by makers of the so-called dirty ice cream peddled in the streets, especially outside schools.
Parents, he said, are apprehensive that the substance “might have already surreptitiously entered the country considering the seasonal rise in demand for sweeteners during the yuletide season.”
“Similar to the melamine-contaminated food products imported from China, the (so-called) magic sugar or sodium cyclamate reportedly poses a threat to public health,” he said in a proposed measure.
“School children in public schools tend to be the prime consumers of the food products sweetened by the carcinogenic magic sugar,” he said.
Labella, chairman of the council committee on laws, said the use of magic sugar is prohibited under Republic Act 3720, or the Food, Drugs and Cosmetics Act, while Bfad Advisory 00-05 also bans its sale.
Last Wednesday, upon Labella’s request, the council formally asked the Department of Health, the Bfad, and other concerned agencies to work together so that “a definitive and clear policy to ban defective (China-made) products will be swiftly implemented.”
And like in any other Third World country, local markets are saturated with Chinese food products other than milk, the council said. (RHM)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (October 12, 2008 issue)
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