After food poisoning, candy sales down

DAVAO CITY—Established durian candymaker Lola Abon’s here has reported a sharp decrease in its sales following the July 10 mass food poisoning incident in Caraga and North Cotabato, which was blamed on products of another city-based candymaker.

Dolly Saniel, Lola Abon’s corporate secretary, said on Saturday that the public’s newfound fear about durian candy poisoning had driven their sales down by about 80 percent.

Saniel said customers were staying away from durian candy products these days, even from the ones the company manufactures.

Lola Abon’s produces about 1,000 packs of durian candy bars and 1,000 packs of diced durian candies each day at its facility in Matina here.

“Buyers who cannot go to our stores usually buy their durian pasalubong at the airport, but now even if we give them free samples, they decline for fear that it might be poisonous,” Saniel said.

On July 10, some 2,000 children in the provinces of Surigao del Sur, Agusan del Sur and North Cotabato were brought to various hospitals after they complained of nausea, vomiting and stomach cramps. Earlier in the day, they bought and ate Wendy’s durian and mangosteen candies peddled by followers of televangelist Apollo Quiboloy. At least eight Quiboloy followers had been arrested and charged in the aftermath of the incident, which the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said, was caused by the durian candies tainted with staphylococcus aureus.

Wendy’s has since been shut down even if it insisted that its products were safe and that the candies involved in the food poisoning might have been tainted after it was bought from them.

Saniel said it was unclear when Lola Abon’s, founded in 1956 by her grandmother, Abondia del Puerto Raaken, could spring back from the effects of the food poisoning scare.

But she said the company, which is registered with the FDA, continues to implement a strict manufacturing process and distribution system to ensure that its products are safe.

A few years ago, Lola Abon’s even had to turn down an offer by a giant mall to distribute its products nationwide because it could not effectively monitor the handling, said Roberto Saniel, another Raaken grandchild, during an earlier interview.

Christina Ramos, former president of the Davao Food Processors Association (DFPA), the same group that Lola Abon’s belongs to, vouched for the safety of the products of their group.

“We require our members to get an updated FDA license to operate for their products. This is a mandatory requirement for our members,” Ramos said.

But she said they have yet to find a solution to enable consumers to identify their members. Currently, many DFPA members do not carry the association’s logo on their product packages.

Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte, the acting city mayor, said the city government has forged an agreement with the FDA to weed out food processors that have no FDA licenses.

Duterte said under the agreement, those without FDA licenses would be given an opportunity to secure one, after which, a crackdown would be launched against defiant food processors.

Under the agreement, the city’s business bureau would furnish the FDA with a list of food businesses issued with business permits. The FDA will then consult its database of food processors that had acquired clearances.

“Those that do not have FDA license will be given one month to secure one. After that, we will visit them and if they still failed to acquire one, they will be shut down,” Duterte added. Judy Quiros, Inquirer Mindanao