Palace urges DOH, LGUs to work together, combat food poisoning

By working together, the Department of Health (DOH) and local governments could combat food poisoning incidents in the provinces, Malacañang suggested Saturday.

“Hopefully, all the other LGUs (local government units) that have incidents like this will be more receptive to DOH and will take the necessary action to prevent incidents of this nature from recurring,” Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte said over Radyo ng Bayan.

Valte said the DOH is closely monitoring the situation and has been working with the local governments involved.

She said one of the measures proposed was to issue identification cards to ambulant vendors, especially those who sell outside schools.

On Friday, at least 172 students were hospitalized after showing signs of food poisoning. The children were given ice candies and cupcakes by a Manila-based foundation.

READ: Sweets down 172 schoolchildren in Laguna

For the past weeks, numerous reports of children and adults falling ill to durian candies, pastil, macapuno candies, and okoy were published.

READ: From candies to cake: Food poisoning downs at least 1,500 in 2 weeks

The worst case involved that of the durian candy, which resulted in the food poisoning of 1,350 people.