Fake rice seized in Davao submitted for lab analysis
July 02, 2015 at 11:15am
Last week, a certain Carmencita Grino complained of buying fake rice at a store in Matina Aplaya. The complainant said that the rice, when cooked, becomes compressed like styrofoam.
The National Food Authority (NFA) in Davao readily conducted a trace on the suspected fake rice and found out that it came from Cabantian, Buhangin who in turn sourced it from a rice trader in Bansalan, Davao del Sur.
Based on investigation conducted by NFA, the sack of alleged fake rice from Bansalan has no marks or labels.
NFA-Davao assistant manager Elaine Respecia said that they are set to submit a sample of the alleged fake rice to the Food Development Center (FDC) in Metro Manila for further laboratory analysis.
The Food and Drugs Administration also conducted a laboratory analysis of the "cooked fake rice" in its satellite laboratory in Tagum City. The result of the test will however be released in seven to ten days.
It was learned that the NFA laboratory can only analyze a raw rice and not the cooked ones. The suspected fake rice sample submitted to the NFA was already cooked.
On Tuesday evening (June 30), another fake rice incident was reported in Mintal. The complainant claimed that they bought one sack of suspected fake rice but only realized that it could be fake when they stored some of its cooked rice in the refrigerator.
The victims claimed that they noticed that the rice also resembled styrofoam-like texture when they took it out of the refrigerator. Sadly, the complainants claimed that they have almost consumed all 50 kilos of rice before they noticed it.
Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, meanwhile, warned traders against entertaining the idea of bringing in fake rice in the city.
The Davao City Police Office said they are already conducting an investigation to determine the source of the suspected fake rice. Authorities said the seller is from Bislig, Surigao del Sur.
Concerned government agencies will conduct inspections in all rice warehouses in the city to ensure that no fake rice would be sold to the public.
Source: cnnphilippines.com
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