The chairmen of the House and Senate committees on agriculture said on Friday, Dec. 23, that the Department of Health (DOH) should look into the unabated entry of artificial sweeteners into the country to determine their effects on the health of the Filipino people.
“The DOH should step in on this matter because there have been several findings already in the United States on the dangers of artificial sweeteners,” House Committee on Agriculture and Food chairperson Rep. Mark Enverga said at a press conference in Talisay City during a break in the Congressional consultation on the sugar industry.
Senate Committee on Agriculture, Food, and Agrarian Reform chairperson Sen. Francis Pangilinan said they should also look into whether they can legislate the entry of artificial sweeteners.
Right now, the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) does not have the authority to act on the entry of artificial sweeteners, he said.
“We should look into the regulation of artificial sweeteners and their impact on the local sugar industry and health,” Pangilinan said.
Manuel Lamata, United Federation of Sugarcane Planters (UNIFED) president, said that the unabated and uncontrolled influx of imported sucralose and other sweeteners is alarming and must be addressed.
Bottlers and other industrial users are using these as substitutes for local sugar, he said.
UNIFED is urgently requesting Congress to legislate regulatory powers for the SRA to oversee and regulate the importation of all sugar substitutes and sweeteners, Lamata said.
Aurelio Gerardo Valderrama Jr., Confederation of Sugar Producers’ Association Inc. (CONFED) president, urged legislators to empower the SRA to monitor and regulate, for economic as well as health reasons, the entry and consumption of chemical or artificial sweeteners, which are cornering a huge share of the local sweetener market.
This can be done through amendments to the Sugar Industry Development Act (SIDA), which was the subject of last year’s hearing, he said.
“We cannot overstress the obvious: the uncontrolled use of chemical sweeteners in beverages, whether or not these are marketed as diet or sugar-free, is slowly killing the domestic sugar industry and, if we are to believe the warnings, poisoning our consumers who think diet or sugar-free beverages are healthy,” Valderrama said.
“Artificial sweeteners and over-importation of refined sugar will hasten the downfall of the domestic sugar industry if no appropriate and effective measures are taken by government,” Valderrama said.*