EDITORIAL - Magic sugar

With sugar prices soaring, unscrupulous businessmen have stepped in, offering a cheap sweetener with an effect so potent it has been called magic sugar. The only problem with the magical product, sodium cyclamate, is that health experts have found it to be carcinogenic. It has been banned in the country for the past four decades. The fact that the product has found its way back into the local market raises concern about the enforcement of food safety standards in this country.

A pack of magic sugar, which sells for P30, is enough to sweeten a gallon of cold drinks, according to reports. With refined sugar being retailed at P45 a kilo, sodium cyclamate is easy to sell to ambulant vendors whose margin of profit on cold drinks is miniscule. The sweetener is reportedly sold under the Gold Bell brand, manufactured in Indonesia and smuggled into the Philippines.

Police have started cracking down on ambulant vendors using magic sugar in Manila. Law enforcers are also verifying reports that the use of magic sugar has become rampant in Batangas, the Bicol Region, Bulacan, Cebu, Isabela, Nueva Ecija, Sorsogon and Zamboanga City.

The crackdown must be complemented by inspections conducted by food safety agencies to determine if the banned substance is being used for other food products now in the market. It wasn’t too long ago that health authorities found dairy and pet food products containing toxic levels of melamine, which has been shown to cause kidney failure. Health authorities must show similar zeal in ferreting out food products that might be contaminated with sodium cyclamate.

At the same time, Customs authorities must tighten their watch on substances declared as food additives. The Bureau of Customs can improve its coordination with health authorities in clearing such shipments for release. Customs personnel themselves or their relatives could end up suffering from illnesses caused by magic sugar. Businessmen who brought in the banned substance must also be apprehended and penalized. Public safety cannot be compromised in the name of profit.