Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Health officials order crackdown on food products from China
KORONADAL CITY -- Health officials here launched a crackdown against the selling of imported food products from China after a pack of chocolate wafers downed at least 31 pupils of an elementary school here Wednesday.
South Cotabato health officer Dr. Edgardo Sandig said pupils of the Koronadal Central Elementary School I were rushed to the South Cotabato Provincial Hospital last week after suffering symptoms of apparent food poisoning.
Myla Rose Mabalot, class adviser of the victims, said her pupils complained of dizziness after eating chocolates sold by one of their classmates.
The teacher said the victims reportedly bought the chocolate wafers from pupil Kathleen Maximino who bought it from Novo department store, a budget store selling mostly cheap imported goods from China.
Provincial sanitary inspector Jose Baroquillo said they immediately went to the store to investigate but the owners already pulled out the alleged "poison-laden" product from their shelves.
"We inquired with the owners but they were not cooperative so we just took note of the other products they were selling there," he said.
While they were inside the store, Baroquillo said a customer came in and returned a similar product that downed the pupils of KCES I. The customer complained that the product doesn't taste like chocolate.
He said they would use the returned product, which they already sent to the Bureau of Food and Drugs for laboratory testing, as evidence against the storeowners and possibly its Manila-based distributor.
"So far, we found out that some of the products they were selling don't have any permit from BFAD and therefore should not be sold to consumers," he said.
Baroquillo said they would do an inspection of stores in the city selling imported products for the possible presence of goods that have no permits from BFAD for commercial selling. (Allen V. Estabillo)
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