THE Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) will submit to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) samples of the canned tuna flakes included in the family food packs (FFPs) that it distributed to communities affected by the oil spill in Mindoro Occidental to determine if these are contaminated.
DSWD Assistant Secretary and spokesman Rommel Lopez, in an interview with ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo, maintained that the canned goods in the FFPs were not expired as the labels indicated that they are good until 2025.
Lopez, however, said some of the canned tunas have been prepositioned in the warehouses for a time and may have been there for about a year already.
He said DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian on May 6 has ordered the recall of the canned goods after several beneficiaries in Oriental Mindoro complained about the quality of Ocean’s Best Tuna.
Similar complaints were also received from recipient families in Batangas, Cavite and Sorsogon.
DSWD Field Office Mimaropa, in its May 5 report, said several beneficiaries from Calapan City and the municipalities of Naujan, Bulalacao and Roxas complained that the tuna flakes in the FFPs were “unacceptable and (had) unusual taste,” were “unpalatable” and “smell(ed) like rotten eggs.”
Lopez said a fact-finding board has been formed to investigate the complaints and among its recommendations was to submit the samples to FDA to determine if the canned tuna flakes are safe for consumption of DSWD beneficiaries.
He added that the fact-finding board has met with representatives of the two suppliers of the goods and informed them of the DSWD’s plan to submit samples of the canned tuna flakes taken from the pre-positioned FFPs.
“The DSWD will wait for the results of the FDA tests as this will determine objectively and scientifically whether the questioned canned tuna flakes (are) really safe for the consumption of the beneficiaries or not. Until we have the full report of the FDA, we cannot categorically say if the complaints were due to taste preference or there is really contamination in the cans of Ocean’s Best Tuna,” Lopez said.
He said the FDA test will determine, among others, if the 2025 expiration date stamped on the cans really correspond to the state and quality of the tuna flakes.
Lopez said that in the event that the FDA test result is unfavorable to Ocean’s Best Tuna, the DSWD can ask for the replacement of the whole lot by the suppliers or impose sanctions, such as withholding of payment and even blacklisting the firm from the list of accredited suppliers.
