Binondo cops nab supplier of cancer-causing sweetener

MANILA, Philippines - The Manila Police District (MPD) arrested a suspected supplier of a cancer-causing sweetener called “magic sugar” in a buy-bust operation in Binondo, Manila Tuesday.

MPD police officers set up an entrapment after verifying reports that vendor Pedro Prangan, 34, has been selling magic sugar to other vendors selling refreshments.

“The selling of juice drinks sweetened with cancer-causing magic sugar endangers public health,” MPD intelligence chief Superintendent Ernesto Fojas Jr. said.

Prangan was arrested after handing a plastic bag containing 10 packs of “Gold Label” brand magic sugar to an undercover police officer.

Prangan said vendors need a kilo of refined sugar worth P40 to sweeten a gallon of juice drink, but they use only a spoonful of magic sugar to have the same effect. A pack of magic sugar containing at least 20 spoonfuls cost at least P19.

The government has long banned magic sugar, also known as neotogen or sodium cyclamate, after studies showed that it causes cancer in animals.   – Nestor Etolle