By Roderick L. Abad
THE Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is on track to meet the deadline set by its top executive to finish processing the applications of food businesses for their license to operate (LTO) and their certificate of product registration (CPR), pending since January 2015.
The agency is set to roll out its digitization initiative next month.
Maria Lourdes C. Santiago is the acting director general of the FDA, an agency under the Department of Health that supervises the safe flow of food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and other products to the Filipino public.
Maria Theresa C. Cerbolles, an FDA official, said they have almost 2,000 LTO and 6,000 CPR applications, due for approval and issuance since last year.
“We have received a standing order that we need to finish them by end of March [2016], so we don’t have applications to process by April,” she told participants of the exporters’ seminar at the Department of Trade and Industry’s Export Marketing Bureau in Makati City last week.
She attributed the influx of applications from food distributors, importers, exporters and manufacturers who are exploring the local market and the country’s continued economic growth and strong entrepreneurship.
“The FDA is doing its best to meet the demand of our clients,” she told the BusinessMirror at a sideline interview.
“Currently, there is an overflow of applications for LTO and CPR because our economy is growing and many entrepreneurs have set up their own businesses. So we are trying to cope up with that growth, albeit with some innovations,” she said.
As part of this initiative, she noted that the FDA now has the electronic registration (e-registration) in place for the issuance of CPR for low-risk products, raw materials and ingredients.
Food products that are considered “low risk” are those with longer shelf-life, such as biscuits, dry pasta noodles, candies, nougats and some basic bakery items. Under this category, the release of CPR takes around 53 calendar days.
“We want to emphasize to our clients that they need to be vigilant in filling out the fields [of the online application form]. They need to review and edit from time to time because when we compare and validate what is in your label as against the fields on the online [application], and found out that they are inconsistent, that will be a ground for denial,” she said.
At present, the 114 days of processing of CPR registration for medium- and high-risk products is done manually.
“So you don’t need to go to the FDA to submit the soft copies that we will copy in our central receiving area. You just need to go online and upload your accomplished documents there,” Cerbellos said.
Medium-risk products include chocolates, canned or bottled goods and non dairy-based frozen desserts, among others. Starting July, processed meats will again be subject to registration and licensing by the FDA.
Products classified as “high risk” are eggs, cheese, ready-to-drink milk, frozen-meat products, bakery items with filling, snacks with nuts and seafood products.
The traditional issuance of food export and health commodity clearance, which is on a voluntary basis, will also become digital next month.
Initially, this will be applicable only for low-risk products. But once the e-registration for medium- and high-risk products become full blast, the clearance application will follow.
Also set for the pilot trial in March is the proposed electronic-licensing or e-LTO, an online application to encode necessary information of a certain business entity.
Its major variations include changes in the operations or activities of the establishment that may affect significantly and/or directly the aspects of safety and quality of products; and shall be approved upon proper notification, submission of requirements to the FDA, and inspection.
Minor amendments are changes in administrative matters and/or changes in the operations of the establishment with minimal impact on the safety and quality of products.
Apart form food products, Cerbolles said e-LTO will be opened for drugs and cosmetics.
“These innovations are our answers to the demand of the local industry right now. It’s really growing and at the same time, keeping the safety aspects of our products generally covered by FDA. [This is] business enabling. It will lessen the processing time and requirements for such necessary business documents,” she said.