The public health scandal in China, making ill thousands of babies after intake of milk formula containing melamine, an industrial chemical used in making plastics, has generated alarm all over the world. Worst, it could blow up the dairy products industry.
Melamine is a chemical that is believed to increase the protein content of milk products. Scientific reports, however, disprove this claim, saying it has no nutritive value, and more over used as pesticides. When ingested, its side reactions will produce diseases of the kidneys, and in China, resulted in stone formations in infants.
This resulted panic in those countries importing Chinese milk formula. To date, the Philippine Government has banned the import of Chinese milk. The Department of Health, Department of Trade and Industry, and the Bureau of Customs were mobilized to inspect, retrieve, and inform the public of the hazards of the baby formula.
This scandal has unearthed much deeper problems that plagued our country for so long. Perhaps we have become so brilliant that we have known how to “short cut” things. Long before the melamine tainted formula, we have been fooling people selling “double-dead” meat, pesticide-tainted vegetables, and water injected chicken. No body complained! Regulation of food items by the government is not a priority. In many outlets in Manila, milk preparations are ‘repacked’ and sold ‘unbranded’. Nobody will know whether these are tainted with the fatal chemical or not. And still nobody knows how these reached the market. This is because of poverty. The high cost of living has created a big market for the cheapest available food item and the poor will bite the bullet. Nobody cares, for as long as one lives. Sadly, while the government desires to protect the consumers, there are no many resources to perform such.
This scandal may have opened a can of worms, as far as the buying styles of the Filipino are concerned. But still life is precious…one’s vigilance may offer you a better milk and honey.
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