Consumers discouraged to buy food products with untranslated label

A trade and food safety expert expressed concerns over Filipino consumers’ growing appetite over imported products such as instant Korean and Chinese noodles that have untranslated food labels.

This, and the unregulated entry of other imported agricultural products as far as food safety measures is concerned, is not only dangerous to consumers but also detrimental to local food producers, another source said.

In a virtual bi-monthly Food Security Forum on Monday, Jhunafe Ruanto, a trade expert and member of Tugon Kabuhayan, said consumers should be discouraged when they see food products in groceries that have an untranslated label.

Because it’s either these products were smuggled into the country or the Philippine government just simply failed to impose the country’s food safety measures on them. 

“We have such things as mandatory labeling requirements in food imports and exports. When we sell our products abroad, its label should be translated in a language that would be understood by the majority of the people living there. It should be the same thing when products are brought here,” Ruanto said.

“Other countries are strict about their food safety laws. Our government is obviously not because we still see a lot of these products in our groceries,” she added, referring to food products like instant noodles from South Korea and glutinous rice and canned goods from China.

The problem about food products with untranslated products, according to her, is consumers wouldn’t know if their ingredients are safe and that there would be lack of accountability on the part of importers and manufacturers in case consumers encountered health problems after eating them. 

“Personally, I will discourage consumers. Do you want to eat products and you have no idea how they were made? The government has to make sure that all the products that go here are healthy. How would you know if they’re healthy if you can’t understand the label?” Ruanto asked.

Ideally, based on the country’s food safety laws, all imported food products should have been pre-approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before they reach the groceries and supermarkets.
Under such a process, it is assumed that the food labels have already been translated by the exporter before they reach the borders of the Philippines.

“In the Philippines, it’s easier to import than export just in terms of the list of things to comply with. It’s easier to let something in than send something out that’s why local exporters are at a disadvantage,” Ruanto said.

“Our exporters understand this strict requirement. They know how hard it is to send products abroad, like in Europe and New Zealand. Other countries are just really strict when it comes to food safety,” she further said.

She also said that if the food products were able to enter the Philippines with an untranslated label, there’s also a chance that they were smuggled. 

“If you're going to do the ideal process, they should all be translated,” she said.

For her part, Virginia Suarez, secretary general of Kilusan Para sa Pambansang Demokrasya, said the government should be held liable for allowing these products to enter the country because this is detrimental to local food producers and it endangers consumers.

“The government should impose strict compliance of food safety laws. How come our government is strict on exports and very relaxed on imports? We are drowning in imported products already,” Suarez said.  

“It should take strict implementation of food safety policies to allow imported products to enter the country,” she added.

She also said that inability of the government to implement food safety measures is causing over importation on certain agricultural products, which is damaging to local food producers because they have to compete with cheaper imported goods. 

The same can be said about the rice industry which has been liberalized starting last year amid the implementation of Rice Tariffication Law (RTL). The law, which allowed unlimited rice importation, resulted in the influx of imported rice, pulling down prices of locally produced palay up until now. 

Right now, the Department of Agriculture (DA) is hoping to address the situation by considering suspending the issuance of import permits on rice during harvest season. 

Ruanto agreed with Suarez, saying that “since it’s easy for imported products to enter the Philippines, the tendency is for these products to keep on coming in”.

“If we will regulate entry of goods entering the country, we can definitely correct the trade imbalance in agriculture and food products,” she said.

Tugon Kabuhayan, where Ruanto is a part of, is an advocacy group helping Filipino farmers by promoting domestic production, food safety and security and environmental protection, among others.

The group is currently leading the call in the country for both consumers and government to support locally produced food instead of imported ones.

A few weeks ago, ahead of the government’s plan to import fish products like galunggong or round scad, Tugon Kabuhayan Convenor Asis Perez asked consumers to instead buy locally caught and produced

fisheries and aquaculture products such as bangus and tilapia.

“Comparing galunggong and tilapia, the taste is different but they have the same protein content. It’s the same. So if galunggong is expensive, buy tilapia,” Asis Perez, former director of Bureau of Fisheries

and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), said.

Other products that would serve as a good alternative to galunggong, or the ‘poor man’s fish’, would be bangus and shellfish products like talaba and tahong, he said.

He made the statement ahead of the three-month closed fishing season for galunggong starting November 1, as well as amid the proposal of BFAR to import fish to fill in the expected gap in the supply of this particular fish product.