HAVING BEEN cleared by the local food and drug administration, Turkey’s biggest flour producers and exporters are highlighting their products at the World Food Expo 2010 being held at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City.
But about 15 demonstrators led by Ronald Lumbao of the People’s Movement Against Poverty (PMAP) Wednesday staged a lightning rally and engaged security guards of the SMX complex in a brief scuffle. They wore t-shirts saying: “Pandesal na mura, panlason sa masa (cheap bread rolls, toxic to the masses) and “no to importation of toxic Turkish flour.
Earlier, local flour millers brought up the possibility that rival Turkish flour, which was being sold 25 percent cheaper than locally milled flour, was toxic. The Department of Health, however, said tests showed Turkish flour imports were safe.
“Our mills in Turkey are some of the biggest and most modern in the world. These mills produce flour in compliance with international standards on quality and safety,” said Turgay Ugtu, deputy chair of Cereals, Pulses, Oilseeds and Products Exporter Unions Sector Committee, an organization of flour producers and exporters in Turkey.
“We are assuring everyone that the wheat flour that we produce in Turkey is safe and of good quality,” he added at a press conference Wednesday.
Ugtu’s claim was supported by Binondo-based businessman Ernesto Chua Co Kiong, whose Malabon Longlife Trading Corporation is a leading importer and wholesaler of Turkish flour in the country.
Kiong said the cheaper Turkish flour has helped many bread and noodle-making enterprises thrive—and keep down the price of the Filipino pandesal, a common breakfast staple.
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