“Korean barbecue places should give their patrons the option of using cooking oil or margarine in cooking pork.

During the two weeks before Christmas, print and television advertisements of various consumer products urged everyone to buy, buy and buy. The advertisements highlight all the alleged goodness of food products, beverages and just about anything that has some association with the yuletide season.

One advertisement for Christmas ham says the yuletide celebration is not complete without it. A beverage advertisement cajoles consumers not just to buy the beverage but to share it with family and friends. The advertisement of a hamburger outlet suggests that its fried foods make the season merry.

That may be so, but, are those products fit for human consumption?

The African swine fever (ASF) is still very much around, and Health and Agriculture authorities have not ruled out its existence.

There is the equivocal statement from Undersecretary Enrique Domingo of the Department of Health (DoH) that pork contaminated with the ASF is safe for human consumption, but he refuses to explain how he arrived at that conclusion.

Public interest demands that an explanation be made by Domingo, considering that a virus can mutate when it transfers from one host to another.

If a pig, which has a stronger immune system than that of humans, can die because of the ASF, there is good reason to believe that the ASF will have regrettable adverse effects on humans.

So far, at least two popular brands claim that their Christmas ham and pork products do not have the ASF. Can they be taken on their word alone?

It’s already Christmas and DoH Secretary Francisco Duque III seems more concerned about a legislative ban on firecrackers than the safety of consumers of pork products.

Improperly cooked pork contains parasites that are harmful to humans. Nevertheless, Metropolitan Manila has many Korean barbecue restaurants where patrons get to roast raw pork on a makeshift grill on the table, without any cooking oil or margarine to assure proper cooking. Patrons who are not used to cooking pork may not really know if the pork they are roasting is already safe to eat. That poses a serious health risk.

Korean barbecue places should give their patrons the option of using cooking oil or margarine in cooking pork.

Speaking of cooking oil, a very famous, ubiquitous hamburger chain is notorious for overusing its cooking oil over a stretch of several days. Even if the oil is already rancid, it is still used for fried chicken and fruit pies. Don’t they know that rancid cooking oil can trigger intestinal diseases?

The outlet’s branches in Philcoa in Diliman and in the Palanan and San Isidro districts of Makati employ this unsanitary practice.

In addition, all of the branches of the said hamburger chain serve beverages in plastic, reusable tumblers that often have detergent residue on them due to sloppy cleaning.

Fortunately, its main competitor has less objectionable practices. For one, the competitor does not use rancid cooking oil and dirty reusable tumblers.

A smaller hamburger chain that sells its products in small, roadside 24/7 kiosks occasionally uses old stock buns instead of fresh ones for its sandwiches. Although its meat products are delicious, the meal is ruined by the dry old buns that crumble easily.

Back in the late 1980s, this hamburger chain was very popular with students and blue-collar workers. It also expanded to include two-story affairs along Quezon Avenue and in New Manila. Now it’s back to selling through its roadside kiosks.

A famous Hong Kong-style restaurant that also operates 24/7 kiosks near subdivision entrances passes off its old, unsold siopao as fresh ones by reheating them over and over and selling them to unsuspecting customers who buy them for home consumption.

It’s easy to tell old, repeatedly reheated siopao — the steamed bread is dry and easily crumbles. That’s not only unsanitary — that’s consumer fraud.

Surprisingly, the restaurant used to be known for its delicious siopao in the 1970s. Crowds flocked to its branches in Ermita, Makati, and in Cubao and Heroes Hill in Quezon City. Those crowds are now gone.

Local government health officials should investigate these unsanitary and fraudulent food outlets which threaten public health.