Dr. Lawrence Liao on food safety accountability and natural history museum

Allow us to share the feedback of Prof. Lawrence Liao of Hiroshima University about food safety accountability.

“Thanks for that nice write-up about food safety - it is sad that to this day hundreds of  Filipinos still fall victim to an avoidable poisoning situation. I have a suggestion to help address the situation. I am for better accountability for such incidents.

Each botica in Cebu is required by law to have a licensed pharmacist on hand. Why not a licensed food professional in every restaurant, especially those in larger establishments?

We have many PRC licensed dieticians who can be hired to implement food safety standards and who can also be held accountable if some customers of their establishments go into trouble.

Food safety is taught among all HRM students but they rarely get to use their know-how. So why not pass an ordinance requiring all food establishments to hire HRM graduates or licensed nutritionists or dieticians who will at least see to it that food safety standards are implemented and also be criminally liable should it be proven that food safety standards in one establishment have been compromised?

Thus far, there has been many reports of deaths and hospitalizations and no one has gone to jail.

I think a simple ordinance like this will hit many birds with one stone but I really like more accountability on the part of food providers --- many local caterers are using primitive safety standards, mano-mano, and we know that reports of food poisoning are common, too many to be ignored now, and we want to be a tourist-friendly city?

Our government should initiate ways to tap our manpower -- I'm sad to see HRM and Nutrition graduates and friends who feel their four years of university education are down the drain.

It's about time we have more accountability - we cannot take this anymore sitting down --- whole baseball teams sent to hospital for poisoning, wedding guests ending up in hospitals due to pan-os food, adulteration of food, using of double-dead meat, etc. We need more accountability.

Prof. Liao also observed that the veterinarian's office, as well as the abattoir, are crucial links in the food safety chain supply and he hopes that such crucial offices should be spared from politics to assure that committed and qualified people are guarding our food production, supply, and distribution chain, for the safety of all.

I mentioned that I will write about his suggestion for accountability of all those involved in the production, supply, and distribution of food in this column. I also expressed the hope that city and provincial officials follow up his suggestion with an ordinance so as to assure everyone about the safety of the food that they purchase and consume.

Prof. Liao, who is a visiting Professor at the Graduate School of Biosphere Science of Hiroshima University, is an advocate for the establishment of natural history museums to showcase the rich biodiversity of our country.

He laments the scarcity of natural museums in a country that has so much natural wealth to document "as part of our natural heritage ('kabilin') and which can be sources of  "long-term datasets (time series) for ecological research useful for reconstructing i) Habitat destruction, ii) Climate warming, iii) Ocean acidification, iv) Biogeographic range changes [e.g., tracing the spread of invasive species], and, v) Organismal response to environmental change [e.g., using preserved feathers to trace diet changes in birds], among others."

Allow us to share Prof. Liao's valuable message to the Boholanos in a presentation at the Holy Name University early this year: 1) let us know and appreciate what is rightfully our own- our very rich biodiversity; 2) establish a natural history museum in one's locality and make this into a top community priority with the total support of everyone, primarily government and private sectors; 3) encourage top-quality research of local biodiversity by knowledgeable and well-trained local researchers, and lastly, 4) maintain a secure and well-preserved collection of local biodiversity as part of our natural heritage 'kabilin.'

For everyone's information, Prof. Liao shared that the tarsier has officially been renamed Carlito syrichta, instead of Tarsius syrichta after the pioneer Boholano naturalist Carlito Pizarras of Corella.

***

Email: [email protected]