Malonzo warns public vs buying cheap cheese

Caloocan City Mayor Reynaldo Malonzo yesterday cautioned the public about buying abnormally cheap food products, especially cheese sold along the sidewalks and even in the public markets because they could be hazardous to health.

The alarm was raised after city hall operatives led by officials of the Sanitation Division under the city health office seized about a ton or some 1,000 kilos of recycled spoiled cheese and mayonnaise in a raid of two houses in Bagong Silang, Caloocan City last Wednesday. The suspects told the raiders they have been in the business since July last year.

On orders of Malonzo, the sanitation office, together with the permits and licensing office, engineering department, city administration office and the police, trooped to the area at 4 p.m. and accosted Eva Santos-Sibug, 36, in her residence-factory at 1054 Malaya street, Sapang-Alat Road, Pangarap Village. Also taken for questioning was Fernando Simbulan, just across Santos-Sibug’s house.

Dominador Panti, city sanitation inspector, said they first accosted Simbulan who allegedly was raising some 50 heads in his piggery. Found inside the compound were some containers of smelly cheese allegedly being mixed with other feeds for his pigs.

"Pag may kumukuha sa labas, pinagbibilhan namin. Kung kinakain nila, di ko na problema yun. Ang alam ko sa baboy pinapakain yun," Simbulan told officials when asked whether the cheese is being sold for human consumption.

They were later directed to Sibug’s house. The raiders noticed that the "production area" appeared to have undergone some "rush" cleaning when they arrived. Found were some "unprocessed products and some 72 containers of sorted out or reprocessed cheese ready for distribution. Sibug said she was taking the expired or nearly-spoiled lot from a supplier for P5 per kilo and sells them in turn after recycling at P10 to P25 per kilo depending on the "quality" of the reprocessed cheese.

"At any one time, 1,000 kilos ang pinaiikot ko," Sibug said. Also found in Sibug’s place were bottles of expired mayonnaise, apparently also for the sale after "reprocessing" and repacking.

Panti said the evidence are now covered with canvas in an open-air facility at the back of the city hall.

Malonzo has also ordered Sibug to be taken in as a state witness to help flush out the others who may be in the same business.