In August 2018, imported rice shipped to the ports of Subic and Albay were reportedly infested with weevils or bukbok. To drive the point that this rice was still safe to eat, then Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol said he would eat it.

“Serve me that bukbok rice, I will eat it!” Piñol was quoted as saying in reports.

“Rice really gets infested by weevils,” he stressed.

And so, on 31 August 2018, Piñol himself cooked a tub-full of rice crawling with weevils and in front of live TV, ate the cooked rice with fried galunggong.

To cap the stunt, he clarified that he was not telling the people to eat rice with bukbok but rather pointing out that rice where bukbok crawled is safe for consumption after washing and cooking it.

Public officials have used similar tactics to allay fears on food exposed to contaminants. After a fish kill, for example, officials of affected localities will organize a cooked fish-eating press con.

During a red tide, officials in coastal villages try to convince the public that it is still safe to buy mussels by eating cooked tahong.

When the African swine fever outbreak killed hogs in piggeries, there was a public scare on pork even though the ASF virus does not infect humans. With hog raisers not affected by the ASF also losing buyers, they along with local officials also organized free lechon eating events to convince consumers that pork remains safe to eat.

Of course, nobody gets hospitalized after the eating stunts.

With the recent fish kill in Parañaque City’s coast and the discovery of local authorities of dead mussels and oysters, another free tahong-eating event may be in the offing with the fare to include oysters.

Meanwhile, in Davao del Norte, some banana growers reported that Panama disease has infected and damaged 2,402 hectares of plantations that are lacking in biosecurity protocols and facilities.

It would be interesting to see how banana growers will be doing their own banana bingeing to show that it’s safe to eat their harvest.