Food chains suffer 30% drop in sales

Some operators of fastfood chains have suffered a significant drop in sales in the aftermath of the "mad cow" scare despite repeated assurances from the companies and even government agencies that the beef they use is free from the disease.

"Our sales dropped by 30 percent since the news of mad cow disease broke out. We hope our performance improves later on," said one official of a fastfood chain who recently called on Agriculture Undersecretary Ernesto Ordoñez.

Local franchise holders of hamburger restaurants McDonalds, Jollibee and Burger King assured Ordoñez that the meat they serve the public is safe since their supplies come from disease-free countries like Australia, New Zealand and the US.

Operators pointed out that meat from these countries have always been immune from the disease that has plagued European states.

The official of one fastfood company, who requested anonymity, lamented the manner by which local media broke out the news on the disease late last week.

"Media could gave been more detailed in breaking the news initially. It is only now that people are starting to realize that only meat from Europe is affected," the source said.

The official said stricter government measures on meat shipments "should make consumers feel much safer."

"Maybe their attitude toward meat products, including those sold in fastfood restaurants, will improve as soon as they realize that our beef is safe for everybody," the source said. "They must realize that we are not in business to hurt people but to give the best that we can offer."

The official added that no imported meat can ever harm Filipino consumers since "all supplies from Europe have been shipped back, leaving nothing here except locally produced beef and the ones from disease-free countries."

President Arroyo earlier assured the public that the country is free of the mad cow disease, stressing that a ban on European meat products was strictly being imposed.

Last week, the government widened a ban on the importation of beef products from Europe because of a scare on mad cow disease and an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Britain. The ban covers cattle and sheep products from the United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium, Denmark, France, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland, Italy, Spain and Germany.

Agriculture Secretary Leonardo Montemayor has requested the Customs bureau to speed up the re-shipment of seven container vans of European beef that recently found their way to the country’s ports despite the ban.

A container van with 25 tons of frozen meat has already been shipped back to the Netherlands.

"We are fast-tracking the re-shipment of these products and we will not allow any more meat from Europe to enter the country. Clearance procedures are being undertaken on the remaining cargo so that nothing would be left to scare us," Montemayor said.

Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy was first discovered in cows and sheep in Britain where 177,500 cows have been infected since the outbreak was first detected in the 1980s.

It is believed to cause a brain-wasting illness in humans, known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which has reportedly killed some 80 Europeans since the mid-1990s, mostly in Britain. - With Ella Oducayen