August 9, 2013

The Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an advisory assuring Filipinos that local products were safe even if it still had to conduct tests on these products, after some dairy products and infant milk formulas from New Zealand were reported to contain harmful toxins.

In Advisory 2013-22, the FDA said the three batches of Clostridium botulinum-contaminated whey protein concentrate (WPC80) produced by Fonterra in New Zealand are not in the brands of dairy product and infant formula in the Philippines. It cited the assurances from the local importer-distributor Fonterra Brands (Philippines) Inc. regarding WPC80 products found with the deadly bacteria July 31 this year.

However, the FDA will still have to collect samples in the market for testing as part of its monitoring and surveillance activities.

The following are the Fonterra brands in the Philippines: Anchor, Anlene, Anmum, Mainland, and Perfect Italiano. For the meantime, the agency advised consumers to buy dairy products and infant formula that are registered with the FDA.

Clostridium botulinum is a harmful spore-forming bacterium that produce preformed toxin in processed food products. These toxins are produced especially when manufacturing or processing plants fail to practice proper food hygiene and to sterilise canned goods or any tightly sealed food products.

Ingestion of preformed toxin may result in symptoms like double vision, drooping eyelids, slurred speech, difficulty in swallowing, and muscle weakness -- which sometimes lead to death, usually due to respiratory failure.

These pathogenic bacteria are also known as "canned goods bacilli" that cause "flaccid paralysis."