The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Palawan has not ordered the pullout of Reno liver spread from stores despite the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) recent pronouncement that the product is not registered with the regulatory body.
DTI Palawan provincial director Hazel Salvador said in a text message on Friday that they will only keep track of Reno liver spread in their monitoring tasks.
“Wala pa naman order sa amin na manghuli or mag-pullout. Ang instructions lang ay to assist DOH FDA sa monitoring sa mga tindahan. Wala man sinabi na hulihin at i-pullout,” Salvador said.
She explained that Reno has been in existence even before the FDA began the registration of processed food in 2009.
“Existing na before pa nag-register ng processed food ang FDA noong 2009 lang. Kailangan lang naman nila i-register sa FDA ‘yong product,” she said.
Salvador said that DTI along with FDA will monitor the visibility of Reno liver spread, which was included in the list of FDA containing names of unregistered food products and food supplements.
According to the press statement of the FDA released Thursday, the RENO Foods, Incorporated, the manufacturer of RENO brand liver spread has an existing license-to-operate (LTO) as a food repacker. In 2017, the company applied for the variation of its LTO to include its product line as a manufacturer of processed meat products.
The company was granted the approval of LTO and was instructed to secure the certificate of product registration (CPR) for its products, including RENO Brand liver spread.
FDA requires LTO and CPR as two types of authorizations before any processed food product can be released in the Philippine market.
LTO is an authorization granted to manufacturers, repackers, importers, distributors, wholesalers, and traders who passed FDA guidelines such as Good Manufacturing Practice. After the issuance of LTO, the food business operator is required to secure CPR, which entails checking the safety and quality of the product with applicable standards and issuances.
“This year, FDA inspectors collected samples of RENO Brand Liver Spread for verification of their CPR. Upon extensive search of the FDA database, the mentioned liver spread failed to secure a CPR,” according to the statement.
“Thus, the FDA has a responsibility to inform the public, through an advisory that RENO Brand Liver Spread is NOT REGISTERED as of this date as a processed food product and must secure the required authorization from this office,” it added.
Salvador on the other hand said that the RENO liver spread is still visible in the local market as per monitoring of DTI after the initial advisory of FDA released on September 16.
“Oo, visible pa rin, kung may nagtago na sa bodega ay hindi pa siguro lahat, kasi so far in all the years nila sa market at wala pa naman nalason or what, kailangan lang talaga na magpa-register sila sa FDA kasi ‘yon ang requirements na dapat sundin,” she said.
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