By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo / Special to the BusinessMirror
MADRID—A popular Filipino chef has raised the alarm on nonfood- grade salt being sold commercially in the Philippine market.
Well known for his creative takes on Filipino cuisine, Chef Myke “Tatung” Sarthou (Agos) told the BusinessMirror as much as 80 percent of the salt being sold in supermarkets and wet markets are industrial grade imported from China and Australia. “If you notice, this salt doesn’t melt even when you cook it, because it’s meant for soap, and to make other industrial products [e.g., dye setting, plastics, polyester, glass, etc.]. So, even if you keep adding it to your dish, it has no effect.”
Sarthou was to speak at the ongoing Asisa Madrid Fusión 2017 (AMF 2017) on “What Is Lost Is Found: Rediscovering Pre-Spanish Philippine Cuisine” on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila).
According to a presentation by Pacific Farms Inc. in 2009, the annual salt requirements of the Philippines reached 590,000 metric tons (MT), of which 400,000 MT were imports from Australia and 22,000 MT were from China. The data, however, did not make a distinction between food-grade and industrial-grade salt. The rest of the demand was supplied by local producers, like Pacific Farms.
Sarthou blames much of this large-scale importation of industrial-grade salt on the lack of local supply. Also, a little known law, called Republic Act 8172 or An Act Promoting Salt Iodization Nationwide, otherwise known as the Asin law, signed in 2005, discourages the improvement of the natural-salt industry by prohibiting the commercial sale of natural salt, unless it’s iodized. The law was created to help eliminate the causes of goiter and other thyroid problems due to iodine deficiency.
What’s more, he said, the act of purifying salt, and then iodizing it, eliminates other minerals, which would otherwise be beneficial to a person’s health.
“We import a lot of salt, because for one, the local supply cannot keep up with the demand. But it also makes it a criminal act to sell natural salt in the market,” he stressed. While there are a few natural-salt retailers that sell openly in specialty weekend markets or organic markets across the Metro, Sarthou said they do so with a lot of risk. “If they are caught, they will have a problem,” he said.
Under the law, those caught selling noniodized salt are liable to get their business permits revoked and be fined anywhere from P1,000 to P100,000. Even local restaurants are required to serve only iodized salt.
Asked what agency he could turn to to help get the Asin law revised or repealed, “I really don’t know, because I already asked the Department of Agriculture and to them, salt is not considered an agriculture product.” (Under the said law, “the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and other appropriate government agencies shall identify areas that are suitable for use as salt farms, with the purpose of protecting such areas from environmental risks to ensure sustainability of iodized salt production”.)
Salt-making is a dying industry in the Philippines, with only few commercial producers, while the rest are relegated to the likes of old women still boiling seawater until only the salt remains. In places like Guimaras, for instance, the salt is boiled with gata (coconut milk), then formed into blocks called tultul (or dukdok in Capiz).
Sarthou is the third Filipino chef who will be speaking to about 1,000 participants of the AMF 2017, following in the footsteps of Chefs Margarita Fores (Cibo, Lusso) and Myrna Segismundo (Restaurant 9501).
During his presentation, he pointed out the importance of using salt in Filipino dishes. This includes fermenting seafood to make bagoong, drying fish and processing tinapa.
He said, however, the profileration of nonfood-grade salt impacts on the small makers of bagoong and tinapa, basically cottage industries still in the Philippines. Using industrial-grade salt in these food processes lowers the quality of these traditional food products, making them less palatable to consumers.
Sarthou also championed the cause of Filipino-Muslim cuisine by showing a video of how traditional dishes in Islamic Mindanao areas are created. Thereafter, he made a live demonstration, cooking a Tausug-inspired dish using palapa (burnt coconut meat) and sea urchin, with a dash of native vinegar, and topped with shredded green mangoes.
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Image credits: Stella Arnaldo