CAGAYAN DE ORO—All food processors and eating places may soon be asked to have their food products certified as containing no excessive ingredients such as sugar, fat, msg or vetsin, and others that are known to predispose people to noncommunicable diseases like diabetes, hypertension, obesity and such.
The Department of Health (DOH) began considering certification—already practiced in New York, where the amount of fat and transfat is displayed with the food—after noticing the increasing trend in noncommunicable diseases.
The submission to certification would be vouluntary but the department believes that should consumers begin to depend on these certifications for their decisions in buying food, the practice would become widespread.
The national center for disease prevention and control’s degenerative disease office chief Dr. Prescilla Cuevas said in a media seminar in Cagayan de Oro on Thursday they will start the plan probably in July.
Some American fast-food chains began to offer allegedly healthy options after studies in the United States showed that their regular offerings have inordinate amounts of ingredients that lead to diseases of the circulation, obesity, diabetes and the like.
But studies of their supposed healthy offerings proved they are not as healthful as claimed and still contained large amounts of salt and sugar.
In the Philippines the search for healthful foods in the US has begun to have influence but as Cuevas observed, “For awhile, there was an encouraging trend toward healthful food in the local branches of the American fast chains but it did not last because it was voluntary.”
She said, “Because of this, we decided to push forward with this certification program in cooperation with the World Health Organization and Nutrition Dietitian’s Association of the Philippines.”
“We wanted to establish guidelines for healthy eating with a certification program for healthy food products to help consumers make the healthy food choices to help address the increasing trend of noncommunicable diseases,” she added.
Cuevas said that 7 of 10 Filipinos died from lifestyle-related diseases like hypertension, hyperglycemia, diabetes complications and other cardiovascular diseases.
The top 2 leading causes of death in the country are hypertension and hyperglycemia and both are lifestyle- related—lack of physical activity with consumption of large amounts of sugar, fats, salts.
Based on the National Nutrition Survey, in 1998, 21.0 percent of people had hypertension, increasing to 22.5 percent in 2003 and continuously rising to 25.3 percent in 2008.
Food manufacturers and fast-food establishments who seek certification would probably be asked a fee of P1,000 per product, which is valid for three years. “If application is approved, products would automatically be included on the Good For You (GFY) web site. Products would be monitored for three years. After three years, products would be required to renew their certification.”
If a product wants to put a health claim on the label regarding either fat, sugar, sodium, or fiber, Cuevas said it must meet certain criteria. In addition, Cuevas said other nutrients must not exceed the normal levels of nutrient per day or when the product is eaten, they must not be more than what the body needs.
When asked why the certification is voluntary, she said mandatory implementation may cause a rise in prices. “Manufacturers who are forced to change their food label would probably increase the prices of their products because that will include content analysis.”
