Supermarkets vow strict quality control vs 'double dead' meat in ham

There is no way double-dead or tainted hog meat could go into ham this Christmas, a group of supermarkets assured consumers on Saturday. As the the Christmas shopping season begins to peak, “our group will be strict in procuring our Christmas ham products. We know our suppliers will not shame us by giving us tainted meat," Philippine Association of Supermarkets Inc. (PASI) secretary-general Federico Ples said in an interview on dwIZ radio. On the other hand, he said they expect prices of "select" Christmas items to go up in the coming weeks. Ples said they are still waiting for their suppliers to give them a list of items up for price adjustments. "Taun-taon nangyayari yan [pero] kung magtaas kami piling-pili na mga Christmas food items (We expect prices of some items to go up but these will be on select products only)," he said. Last weekend, Malacañang said it is not keen on placing price caps on some Christmas food items, but added it expects the Trade Department to inspect stores to make sure the price adjustments are reasonable. — LBG, GMANews.TV