By CESAR JOLITO III
The chairmen of the House and Senate committees on agriculture have called on the Department of Health (DOH) to investigate the continued influx of artificial sweeteners into the country, citing potential health risks to consumers and mounting threats to the domestic sugar industry.
House Committee on Agriculture and Food chairperson Representative Wilfrido Mark Enverga, Jr. said the DOH should immediately step in to assess the health implications of artificial sweeteners, noting that several studies in the United States have already raised concerns over their safety.
“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,” Enverga said during a press briefing in Negros Occidental’s Talisay City, held on the sidelines of a congressional consultation on the sugar industry.
Senate Committee on Agriculture, Food and Agrarian Reform chairperson Senator Francis Pangilinan echoed the call, stressing the need to examine possible legislative measures to regulate the entry of artificial sweeteners into the Philippine market.
Importation, health concerns
Pangilinan pointed out that the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) currently lacks the authority to act on the importation and use of artificial sweeteners.
“We should look into the regulation of artificial sweeteners and their impact on the local sugar industry and public health,” Pangilinan said.
Industry stakeholders warned that the unregulated and growing importation of artificial sweeteners, including sucralose, is already disrupting the local sugar sector.
Manuel Lamata, president of the United Federation of Sugarcane Planters (Unifed), said bottlers and other industrial users are increasingly substituting imported sweeteners for locally produced sugar.
“The unabated and uncontrolled influx of artificial sweeteners is alarming and must be addressed,” Lamata said, adding that Unifed is urging Congress to grant the SRA regulatory powers to oversee and control the importation of all sugar substitutes.
Aurelio Gerardo Valderrama Jr., president of the Confederation of Sugar Producers’ Association Inc. (Confed), likewise called on lawmakers to empower the SRA, citing both economic and health concerns.
He said artificial sweeteners are rapidly cornering a significant share of the local sweetener market, to the detriment of domestic producers.
Valderrama said this can be addressed through amendments to the Sugar Industry Development Act, which had been discussed in previous congressional hearings.
“We cannot overstress the obvious: the uncontrolled use of chemical sweeteners in beverages, whether marketed as diet or sugar-free, is slowly killing the domestic sugar industry and, if warnings are to be believed, poisoning consumers who think these products are healthy,” Valderrama said.
He warned that without decisive government action, the combined impact of artificial sweeteners and the overimportation of refined sugar could accelerate the decline of the domestic sugar industry./CJ, WDJ