I. RATIONALE:

Ethnic Foods are food products that use indigenous raw materials, ingredients, condiments, spices or blends of these; using methods of preparation and serving suggestions that produce distinct sensory properties associated with traditional recipes or cooking styles of a region or place of their origin. These can also be adapted from foreign culinary styles that are modified to suit local tastes.

Since these products are different from most common food commodities that other countries are familiar with, they are often evaluated based on existing standards set for products whose characteristics are closely associated with ethnic food products. This practice often leads to inconsistencies in the fair and objective evaluation of the quality and safety of ethnic food products. These inconsistencies contribute to contentious technical barriers to trade leading to poor acceptance and performance of ethnic food products in the export markets.

To address these problems, technical guidelines are provided for local processors to adopt to ensure the quality and safety of these food products. Likewise, these will allow leverage against technical barriers to trade in the liberalized global market, thus, ensuring better competitiveness and market acceptance of our ethnic food products. These standards are hereby promulgated in accordance with the provisions of:

1. Section 3 (a) and (b) and 26 (a) of Republic Act 3720, the "Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act," as amended by Sections 4 and 19 of Executive Order 175 (An Act to Ensure the Safety and Purity of Foods and Cosmetics, and the Purity, Safety, Efficacy, and Quality of Drugs and Devices Being Made Available to the Public, Vesting the Bureau of Food and Drugs with Authority to Administer and Enforce the Laws Pertaining Thereto, and for other Purposes); and,

2. Republic Act 7394, the Consumer Act of the Philippines, "(1992) mandating the Department of Health to "adopt measures to ensure pure and safe supply of foods and establish standards and quality measures for food".

II. SCOPE

This standard prescribes quality requirements and specifications for ETHNIC FOOD PRODUCTS, specifically for 1) Dry Base Mixes for Soups and Sauces, and 2) Sweet Preserves.

III. GENERAL OBJECTIVES

1. To ensure food safety and harmonize with international food control laws, rules and regulations in ensuring better access to domestic and export markets.

2. To develop and promulgate standards for Ethnic Food Products in line with the government's efforts to upgrade the quality of such products in order to improve its acceptance in the export market.

3. To strengthen inter-agency linkages in order to maximize the use of Ethnic Food Products.

4. To promote the adoption of standards in cooperation with concerned government agencies.

IV. DEFINITION OF TERMS

For the purpose of this standard, the following terms shall mean:

 

Container means any form of packaging material, which completely or partially encloses the food (including wrappers). A container may enclose the food as a single item or several units or types of prepackaged food when such is presented for sale to the consumer.

 

Contaminants are any biological or chemical agent, foreign matter, or other substances that are not intentionally added to food, which may compromise food safety or suitability.

 

Food is any substance, whether processed or semi-processed or raw which is intended for human consumption and including beverages, chewing gum and any substance, which has been used as an ingredient in the manufacture, preparation or treatment of "food".

 

Food Additives means any substance not normally consumed as a food by itself and not normally used as a typical ingredient of the food, whether or not it has nutritive value, the intentional addition of which to food for a technological (including organoleptic) purpose in the manufacturing, processing, preparation, treatment, packaging, transport or holding of such food results or maybe reasonably expected to result (directly or indirectly) in its or its by -- product becoming a component of (or otherwise affecting the characteristic of) such food.

 

Food Standard is a regulatory guideline that defines the identity of a given food product (i.e. its name and the ingredients used for its preparation) and specifies the minimum quality factors and, when necessary, the required fill of container. It may also include specific labeling requirements other than or in addition to the labeling requirements generally applicable to all prepackaged foods.

 

Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) is a quality assurance system aimed at ensuring that products are consistently manufactured, packed, repacked or held to a quality appropriate for the intended use. It is thus concerned with both manufacturing and quality control procedures.

 

Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) is a preventive food quality management system, which identifies, evaluates and controls the hazards significant to food safety specific to a product.

 

Heat processed food is any food processed by heat to an extent, which results in a product that is safe and will not spoil under normally expected temperature of non-refrigerated storage and transportation.

 

Hermetically sealed containers are containers, which are sealed to protect the contents against the entry of microorganisms during and after heat processing.

 

Ingredient is any substance including, food additive used as a component in the manufacture or preparation of a food and present in the final product in its original or modified form.

 

Label includes any tag, brand, mark, pictorial, or other descriptive matter, written, printed, marked, embossed or impressed on, or attached to a container of food.

 

Labeling means any written, printed or graphic matter (1) upon any article or any of its container or wrappers or (2) accompanying the packaged food.

 

Lot is food produced during a period of time and under more or less the same manufacturing condition indicated by a specific code.

 

Low-acid food is any food, other than alcoholic beverages, with pH above 4.6 and a water activity (aw) greater than 0.85.

 

Packaging is the process of packing that is part of the production cycle applied to a bulk product to obtain the finished product. Any material, including painted material, employed in the packaging of a product including any outer packaging used for transportation of shipment. Packaging materials are referred to as primary or secondary according whether or not they are intended to be in direct contact with the product.

 

Processed Food refers to food that has been subjected to some degree of processing (e.g. milling, drying, concentration and canning, etc.), which partially or completely change the physico-chemical and/or sensory characteristics of the raw material.

 

Pasteurization is the heating of food at 1000C or below at a specified time.

 

pH is the intensity or degree of acidity of a food material.

 

Processing the part of production cycle starting from weighing of raw materials to the obtaining of a bulk product.

V. GENERAL GUIDELINES

1. All ingredients of Ethnic Food Products shall be clean, of optimum quality and fit for human consumption (Quality Requirements)

2. Food additives, when used shall be prepared in accordance with the BFAD regulations

3. All products covered by this standard shall be prepared in accordance with the BFAD regulations on Current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP), or the General Principles of Food Hygiene, or other principles of other codes of hygienic practice as recommended by Codex Alimentarius Commission.

4. To the extent possible in Good Manufacturing Practice, the product shall be free from objectionable matter.2

5. When tested by appropriate methods of sampling and examination, the product: shall be free from microorganisms in numbers, which may represent a hazard to health, shall be free from parasites, which may represent a hazard to health, shall not contain any substance originating from microorganisms in amounts, which may represent a hazard to health.

6. The products shall be packed in suitable packaging materials

7. Each container shall be labeled and marked in accordance with BFAD labeling regulations.

8. A manual containing the detailed guidelines on ALL specific ethnic food products such as Dry Base Mixes for Soups and Sauces and Sweet Preserves shall be available at the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) for all concerned/interested parties.

VI. REPEALING CLAUSE

All other administrative issuances or parts thereof, inconsistent with the provisions of this Order are hereby amended, repealed or modified accordingly.

VII. EFFECTIVITY

This order shall take effect fifteen (15) days following the date of its publication in two newspaper of general circulation.

Adopted: 30 June 2005

(SGD.) FRANCISCO T. DUQUE III, MD, MSc
Secretary of Health