Traceability: Ensuring healthy, safe food

One of the advocacies of the Philippine Sustainability Movement (PSM) is food traceability to ensure that it is organically produced.

For grocery-restaurant One World Deli (OWD), a PSM partner, the origin of the chicken it sells or cook is traced to know how they were grown, fed and slaughtered.

Roscila Anne Baylon, head of the nutrition and wellness department of PYC Foods Corporation, says her company inspects the chicken of OWD’s sole poultry supplier to ensure that the birds are fed with natural feeds instead of synthetic food pellets.

The OWD supplier feeds chicken with fodder grown via aeroponics, according to Baylon.

The breeders also don’t inject hormones and antibiotics to the chicken, Baylon adds.

The nutritionist spoke on traceability during the PSM anniversary event.

“The more we educate consumers on traceability, the more they will appreciate the origin of the food they eat,” she says.

The number of sustainable food producers, however, remains small because the organic breeding practice has challenges like higher mortality compared to farmers using antibiotics to treat disease.

For farmers who don’t use pesticide, they lose income when their crops die from pest infestation.

“They need assistance from the government in the form of equipment and materials,” says Baylon.

She stresses the health benefits of organic farming to consumers.

“A healthy soil with more vitamins, minerals and microbes transfers the nutrients to the plants. When the plants are eaten, the nutrients are then transferred to the consumer,” Baylon says.

Meanwhile, another PSM partner, German NGO Naturland e.V., educates local farmers on organic farming.

“Our goal is to help local farmers meet the demand for organic food,” says Alexandra Castillo, Naturland’s Philippines coordinator for promotions and market linkages.

In Germany, the food that Naturland certifies is 100 percent organic due to its strict standards, unlike the 70 or 80 percent by other certification agencies, according to Castillo.

The NGO is currently helping local farmers convert to organic practices by weaning them off their old ways.

“It’s basically you have to unlearn a lot of things that was there before, like mixing synthetic fertilizers and buying chemicals,” she says.

Castillo reiterates that not having pesticides in the food means that essentially you’re eating healthier.

“It’ll make you feel better as well knowing where your food comes from. The traceability of it also assures you that the food is safe to eat for me and my kid.”

“We do organic retailing training to PYC Foods and One World Deli. We train their staff to be able to answer questions from the customers that are already looking for organic products,” adds Castillo.

“For the business, what’s good about being certified organic is that it makes you a differentiator.