Public warned vs buying ‘tingi-tingi’ soy sauce

The Food and Drug Administration on Monday advised consumers against buying soy sauce via the "tingi-tingi" (piecemeal) basis amid fears that it is tainted with 3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol (3-MCPD), a potential cancer-causing substance. In Advisory 2011-009, the FDA also voiced concern about imported products not registered with it and being sold in underground markets. "FDA is concerned with market retail practices that compromise the safety of soy sauce products based on the 'tingi-tingi' practice, which requires opening the product package and repacking in plastic bags under unsanitary conditions. The FDA discourages the retailing of unlabeled soy sauce products," FDA head Suzette Lazo said. She said the FDA has linked up with local government units to find solutions to these problems. She also urged the public to buy soy sauce products "in their original container as approved by the FDA." Lazo voiced concern as well about some imported products that are not registered with the FDA and are being sold in the underground markets. The FDA is coordinating with the Bureau of Customs to "improve controls and prevent such products from entering the country," she said. "[We are] encouraging all distributors and traders to register imported products that they may want to market in the Philippines," Lazo added. Lazo said 3-MCPD is a by-product of soy sauce manufacturing that uses hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP) as an ingredient. Citing studies in the 1990s, she said this "can cause cancer in animals." In 2002, the FDA — then known as the Bureau of Food and Drugs — adopted as a standard 1 part per million (ppm) as the maximum allowable limit, the same standard used by the US FDA. Based on Tolerable Daily Intake of 2 micrograms per kilogram per day which is an estimate of safety, a person who is consuming a soy sauce product shown to have 0.16 ppm (usual level of soy sauce products registered in the Philippines) of 3-MCPD has to ingest 700 ml of this product every day for years before he will be at risk of possibly developing cancer," she said. She also said the FDA ensures methods are carried out by the makers of soy sauce in the Philippines and abroad. The FDA requires local makers and distributors of soy sauce to be licensed; and a certificate of analysis before it issues them a license to operate as food manufacturers or distributors. Also, the FDA requires product registration of all imported soy sauce before they are allowed in the market. "Thus all soy sauce products that are under the jurisdiction of the FDA have passed safety evaluation, including safe level of 3-MCPD," she said. - KBK, GMA News