PCA launches food safety campaign
ROXAS CITY – The Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) has launched its food safety campaign to support government's efforts to strengthen its food safety control systems of coconut products.
This initiative is to comply with new and more effective international standard, says the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).
The campaign is aimed at reducing aflatoxin and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) levels in copra and in crude coconut oil, respectively, NEDA said, pointing out that aflatoxin and PAH are known to cause cancer.
PCA Administrator Oscar Garin said that the food safety campaign reinforces the Agency's advocacy not only to improve farm productivity but also to help the coconut farmers improve the quality of their copra produce.
The PCA has a critical role to ensure food safety in the major commodity, Garin said, adding that said responsibility is to establish an uninterrupted chain of food safety from farm to fork to reduce health risk.
He added "with coconut as a commodity, the agency has also to ensure long-term sustainability of our exports to world market."
The international food safety standards set the limit of aflatoxin contamination at 20 parts per billion (ppb), NEDA revealed, adding that the German Society for Edible Oils proposed an upper limit of 5 pbb for heavy PAH together with a total PAH content of less than 25 pbb.
Meanwhile, the online news said that the recent launching of the food safety campaign was a multi-sectoral effort that brought together coconut farmers, millers, traders, officials from the government agencies and the European Union (EU) Delegation of the European Commission to the Philippines.
Said activity was simultaneously carried out in the country's major coconut producers, namely in the cities of Zamboanga, Davao, Lucena, Catarman and Calbayog. (PIA/Jemin B. Guillermo)