EDITORIAL - Food safety

Criminal charges have been filed against 13 persons in connection with a food poisoning incident that sent 438 grade school students to various hospitals last week. The students of the Real Elementary School in Calamba, Laguna fell ill reportedly after eating ice candy and cupcakes donated by a non-government organization.

The poisoning followed a similar incident that downed over 1,900 people, mostly children, who ate candy flavored with durian, mango and mangosteen bought from several areas around the Caraga region. Earlier, at least 15 people got sick after eating siopao sold in a school canteen in North Cotabato. In Iloilo, six children fell ill after eating cake bought from a vendor outside their school. And in Sultan Kudarat, 57 students landed in the hospital after eating squash fritters in their school canteen.

All of these incidents occurred within just a week. People can be warned against buying food from unreliable sources, but there will always be a demand for affordable food products made by micro or small-scale entrepreneurs. As long as there is a demand, there will be suppliers.

Local government units must take the lead in preventing further cases of food poisoning. Only psychotics deliberately poison people, so the problem in the recent incidents must be food sanitation. People who sell food can be taught proper hygiene and sanitation in preparing their products. They sell food because they want to make a living, and they will listen to explanations about how contaminated products can destroy their livelihood and put them in prison. LGUs have health and livelihood officers who can conduct free seminars on food sanitation particularly for micro entrepreneurs.

This can even become a coordinated program to give micro entrepreneurs a role in promoting local food products. There are products unique to each region or province, and LGUs can encourage sanitation and quality control in local food production.

Several countries have shown that street food not only can be clean but also a tourism draw. There are enough models for the Philippines to do the same. Among the indispensable ingredients for success is food safety.