They on the same page?

 

A GMA News report said that the National Food Authority (NFA) is looking into the possibility that the alleged “fake rice” found in Davao City is being produced in the Philippines and not in China.  Well, maybe because it’s election year next year, the government’s food czar suddenly broke his drawn-out silence to say that a sample of the “fake rice” has been found to contain a chemical which reacts with acetone. An NFA official added that when fried, the “fake rice” turned “chalky.”

The NFA being under the Department of Agriculture (DA), its pronouncement that it is including the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) in its investigation came across as a little high-handed.  The unflattering light fell on the DOST because of its reported  use of an extruder machine in fortifying rice. The impression created by the NFA statement is that the extruder machine can also be used to make “fake rice.”

As if the issue was not muddled enough by the failure of the experts of the NFA and the DOST to get their heads together to get to the bottom of the brouhaha, several news headlines have screamed “Let them eat fake rice – UP prof.”

The “fake rice” according to the food scientist from UP may be nothing but the fabricated rice already in production and sale in the Philippines. An example of fabricated rice is corned rice which is not only tasty but is also low in glucose content thus beneficial to diabetics, she said.  The “fake rice” tag is giving fabricated rice a bad reputation, lamented the UP prof.

The only problem with  the  statement “let them eat fake rice” attributed to the UP professor is that the “fake rice” may indeed turn out to be fake and hazardous to our health. Why she assumed the “fake rice” to be the same as the rice “fabricated” by the DOST boggles the mind.

Truly, this issue raises the question: Why can’t our experts and scientists from the NFA,  DOST and the academe be on the same page? What’s so difficult in getting a sample of the “fake rice” found in Davao City and elsewhere and samples of the DOST’s fortified rice and corned rice so they can be tested?

Well and good, if they turned out to be one and the same and that only the lack of information on fabricated rice led to their being tagged as “fake.”  We are talking here of facts and data that can be verified. So government agencies should verify them without resorting to histrionics that only add to the confusion. -end-

Image by FDA