MANILA, Philippines — Senator Francis Tolentino on Wednesday flagged what he believes was a “sad state” of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) enforcement unit when it comes to unregistered products.
Tolentino raised his concern during the plenary debates on the 2021 budget of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in the Senate.
“May I ask, is there an agreement between the DTI and the FDA as regards enforcement because, in the FDA family, there is an enforcement unit. Apparently, parang mahina po yung ating enforcement unit [Our enforcement unit is weak],” the senator said.
He pointed to the popular liver spread brand Reno.
“Lumabas sa news yung Reno liver spread. Reno liver spread has not been approved for the last half century by FDA. Bata pa ho ako ito na po yung palaman sa tinapay. It reflects the sad state of enforcement division of the FDA,” Tolentino said.
(It was reported in the news. Reno liver spread has not been approved for the last half-century by FDA. Since I was a child this has been my choice of spread. It reflects the sad state of the enforcement division of the FDA.)
In September, the FDA announced that several products—including the Reno brand of liver spread—have not secured any Certificate of Product Registration (CPR) from the agency, as required by Republic Act No. 9711 or the Food and Drug Administration Act of 2009.
Without CPR, the FDA said it could not assure the safety of products for human consumption.
The FDA had said that its inspectors first found out that the liver spread did not have a CPR after “extensive research” was done in the FDA’s databases.
While the company behind the liver spread, Reno Foods, Incorporated, has an existing license-to-operate (LTO) as a food packer, the FDA said the company “failed to secure” the needed CPR.
“Paano nakalusot ito? Papaano natin mababantayan to?” Tolentino continued.
(How did this slip through? How can we monitor this?)
“It’s reflective of not just the enforcement division but also how we release into the market food items without checking their safety,” he further stressed.
A month after the FDA announced that the liver spread was not registered with them, the brand could secure a CPR.
“Kaya ko po sinasabi to baka naman dumating sa vaccine ng COVID-19 maglipana yung mag ganito, unchecked. That’s my point,” Tolentino went on.
(The reason I’m saying this is when the time comes that there is already a COVID-19 vaccine, unregistered products can be sold without being checked. That’s my point.)
“What we need is proper enforcement,” he added. [ac]