The Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) did not find any excess pesticides residue from samples of smuggled vegetables that were found in Metro Manila public markets.
“BPI said that these Chinese exporters are using edible wax to prolong shelf life by three weeks. BPI gave a report and a good number of pesticides have been evaluated. All of them are within thresholds and we have not detected formalin,” said Secretary William Dar of the Department of Agriculture in an online briefing yesterday.
Dar said the use of edible wax is not illegal under the Food Safety Act.
He said the goods will still be confiscated by the Bureau of Customs as they were misdeclared items that entered the country without proper manifestation.
DA Undersecretary Ariel Cayanan said food safety tests were made on the smuggled vegetables to help the government improve its tracing capabilities and discover processes being employed by other countries in their shipments.
“If we can trace they have violated (food safety regulations), we can audit them. That is a good information for us to consider,” Cayanan said.
The DA was earlier questioned for conducting food safety tests on the samples of carrots, cabbage and ginger that were smuggled into the country, and subsequently seized.
Cayanan said the DA is consolidating the volume of goods that were seized by the Bureau of Customs as operations are ongoing and some data are considered confidential.
Based on the DA’s monitoring of 11 markets in Metro Manila as of yesterday (October 4), the prevailing price of carrot is at P100 per kg, cabbage at P130 per kg and ginger at P150 per kg.
Smuggled carrots are sold as low as P50 per kg. – J. Macapagal
