The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) recently reminded the public to be vigilant and monitor products found positive for the harmful chemical melamine. In the past months, the melamine problem has caused the pullout of several products from the market after the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) conducted a series of tests on milk and food products suspected to be contaminated with melamine.
In the latest report of BFAD dated October 15, the following products were ordered to be banned from the market: Greenfood Yili Fresh Milk, Mengniu Drink, Jolly Cow Slender High Calcium Low Fat, and Lotte Strawberry Snack Koala Biscuit.
According to DTI, BFAD continues to test other products to protect the welfare of the consuming public. DTI for its part has already started assisting the Department of Health (DOH) and BFAd in information dissemination on the melamine problem while as early as September, the DTI Central Luzon office has already started coordinating with local drugstores and groceries in the recall of milk products with contaminated chemical melamine.
“All the establishments gave full cooperation to DTI and have refrained from putting on their shelves products that have not been cleared by BFAD. We are very thankful that this concern has been resolved smoothly with the concerted efforts of BFAD, DOH, DTI and other government agencies including LGUs. It is very important to properly educate all the stakeholders and protect the consumers from possible harm,” Lantayona said.
Lantayona added that the DTI Region 3 continuously conducts monitoring among establishments, grocery stores, drugstores and other not only for the melamine issue but for other product standards as well.
The melamine problem has especially caused alarm to mothers who are dependent to milk products in nourishing their children. Most of the products found positive for melamine were however made or manufactured in China. Too bad, China continuously gains such bad reputation, particularly in terms of health and environmental hazards as far as their products are concerned. Remember a story about the China toys also pulled out from the market because of their lead content? Billions of dollar worth of toys were recalled from the shelves because of this issue.
Going back to melamine, they always say that we are what we eat so it is better to check every food before we consume it. A few months ago, someone sent me an e-mail about the top five most dangerous foods for our health and are possible cause of different cancer.
To my surprise the first food on the list is hamburger, followed by hotdogs, French-fries, frozen and processed meat and junk food, mostly chippies. I was very saddened to know this not because I eat a lot of it but because my children love eating all of the above.
My eldest son always eats hotdogs and my second son’s favorite are Frenchfries. Now, I need to find replacements for their favorite foods if only to save them from early health problems. I am not saying that the e-mail I got is Gospel truth but it makes a lot of sense because hotdogs contain preservatives and still they are not fresh foods. Another thing, French fries, according to the mail, are cooked more than the normal temperature just so to make them crispy. And such process of cooking allegedly harms our cells.
Junk foods, processed foods and hamburgers, on the other hand, are common products we consume everyday so the more we eat the more we are prone to different types of cancer. Aside from bad cholesterol, most of the processed foods contain too much MSG other flavoring and preservatives that are usually not health friendly.
One of the solutions to minimize our cravings for these foods is to be conscious of our lifestyle. It is better to start cooking at home than bringing our children outdoors to eat.
Instead of buying fries, let us try baking potatoes for them. Another thing, it is important to check the ingredients of a food product to learn how much chemical is being used for its manufacturing. Also, if we can avoid eating too much bad cholesterol usually found in meat, it would be better for us.
I started my vegetarian diet a month ago and it made me feel healthier. There are vegetarian sausages and burger patties now available in the market. Recently, my sons started eating vegetarian sausages and I found out that it is not really difficult to change our lifestyle especially when it comes to the food we eat. It is just a matter of health consciousness and choice.
