Fixing media noche? Check food labels

If you’re doing some last-minute grocery shopping for New Year’s Eve, it pays to check food labels meticulously, ensuring that the packaging and seal of the food items are intact and they were are stored in a clean environment.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday offered these tips to merrymakers to avoid stomach troubles and other health problems caused by feasting on compromised or adulterated food products.

“This Christmas and New Year, there is high demand for food products as Filipino families traditionally celebrate through preparation of meals for festivities,” said FDA officer in charge Director General Maria Lourdes Santiago in an advisory.

Basic consumer tips
“Unwary consumers might succumb to unscrupulous food business operators selling compromised, improperly handled and stored, misbranded and adulterated food products,” she warned.

Santiago said the FDA had prepared basic consumer tips on buying food products for the holidays to avoid eating unsafe food.

Earlier, the Department of Health (DOH) said festivities during the holiday season could spawn food poisoning incidents if the food is not handled properly.

The Southeast Asian region, including the Philippines, has the second highest incidence of food-borne illnesses next to Africa, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). It registers 150 million cases and 175,000 deaths annually, it said.

Most of these cases are caused by non-typhoidal salmonella, E. coli and pork tapeworm, said the WHO.

Storage condition

In checking food labels, one must pay attention to the following information: brand and product name, net content or weight, list of ingredients, name of manufacturer/repacker/distributor/

importer, expiry date, lot identification code and nutrition information.

One must also check the food item’s storage condition, especially for those needing storage beyond the normal room temperature, food allergen information (such as nuts, milk and crustaceans) and direction for use.

Tampered label details, like scratched out information and a new expiry date pasted over the original one, should be considered red flags, the FDA warned.

To ensure that food items are still safe for eating, the FDA said soft packaging materials like plastic, foil and aluminum wrap must not have tears or perforations.  Metal bottle caps must be rust-free  while glass bottles should be crack-free.

It advised consumers not to buy canned goods that are dented, bulging and rusting.

“Food products must at all times be sold under optimal hygienic conditions [such that] the probability of cross-contamination from biological, chemical and microbial hazards must be reduced, minimized and eliminated,” the FDA said.



Cross-contamination

Frozen and refrigerated products must be kept frozen or stored in a refrigerator while perishable products should be kept away from non-perishables to prevent cross-contamination, it noted.

Consumers were also advised against buying food sold in a dirty environment or in areas infested by rodents, insects and other pests.

“Consumers are advised to be more vigilant and conscious in buying food products in the market to avoid health and safety issues,” the FDA said.

source: lifestyle.inquirer.net

Sinulog: A fiesta of faith and gratitude

For years, devotees of the Señor Santo Niño have been coming to Cebu City from all over the country to show their gratitude and fidelity to the Holy Child in the nine-day Sinulog festivities that culminate in a grand parade Sunday.

But for many, this year’s celebration has become doubly meaningful because of the catastrophic disasters that the country suffered in the past few months, particularly for those coming from the areas devastated by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” and the 7.2-magnitude earthquake last October.

The theme of this year’s Sinulog festival is “Faith Withstands All.”

A total of 65 students of La Paz National High School are joining the Sinulog 2014 to thank the Holy Child, colloquially known as the Sto. Niño, for keeping them safe, said teacher Bonifacio Ursal, who is in charge of music, arts, physical education and health (Mapeh) of the Bogo City schools division in northern Cebu.

At least 11 residents died and 35 were left injured by Yolanda in Bogo City. Most of the buildings of the 34 public schools in their division were left without a roof and still have to be repaired, Ursal said.

Because of budget constraints, Ursal said the division has had to recycle and improvise costumes from Bogo City’s “Pintos” festival for the children participating in the Sinulog.

“Our students never complained because to them, joining the Sinulog is our way of thanking the Sto. Niño for keeping us alive,” he said.

A miracle

Another group composed of students, out-of-school youth, overseas workers and fishermen came from Placer, Masbate, to dance the “sinulog” in today’s grand parade.

Placer Mayor Joshur Judd Lanete II said about 900 people from his province had joined the “pilgrimage” to Cebu in thanksgiving to the Sto. Niño for sparing them from the wrath of Yolanda, which cut a swath of destruction through the Central and Eastern Visayas.

Lanete said the Bicol region was among those identified to be on Yolanda’s path, but the supertyphoon changed direction, hitting Leyte and northern Cebu instead, a miracle which he attributed to the Sto. Niño de Cebu.

“Although 2,000 houses were damaged in Placer, we cannot complain [when we] look at Tacloban and Bantayan [island in Cebu],” he said.

Lanete attributes the greatly reduced “visits” of typhoons to his fourth-class municipality to his town mates joining the Sinulog in Cebu for the past three years.

Container city

“When we started, it was hard to convince them to join our pilgrimage to Cebu. But the Sinulog become personal to them after [Yolanda],” he said.

With so many devotees and tourists coming to Cebu for the festival, the city’s hotels, pension houses and inns are all fully booked.

For some years now, the city government has been putting up devotees who are unable to find lodgings in inexpensive temporary accommodations.

This year, the city government has set up a so-called “devotee city,” consisting of 130 20-foot containers at the Compañia Maritima grounds just across the Cebu City Hall.

Councilor Roberto Cabarrubias, who is in charge of the devotee city, said he expected between 3,500 to 4,000 devotees to use the temporary shelter this year.

In the past, devotees without any relatives in Metro Cebu usually slept on the sidewalks until the city government decided to put up a temporary shelter during the festival.

Last year, the city accommodated 2,500 devotees.

Leyte contingents absent

Ricky Ballesteros, the executive director of the Sinulog Foundation Inc. (SFI), said four contingents from the typhoon-devastated Leyte towns of Alangalang, Abuyog, Dulag and Tanauan in Leyte have begged off from joining this year’s Sinulog as they want to focus on their recovery programs.

The groups from Leyte often land in the top five in the free interpretation category of the Sinulog dance contest.

Alangalang won the grand prize for the free interpretation category in 2012 while the bee-inspired dance of Abuyog won the grand prize in the same category in 2009.

Ballesteros said 130 participants had signed up for this year’s Sinulog grand parade, against last year’s 142 contingents.

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama said that rather than worry about the reduced number of out-of-town participants, Cebuanos should be thankful for having survived the destructive earthquake and the typhoon.

“The bigger problem happens if we will no longer have the Sinulog,” said the mayor who is overall chair of the festival.

“The Sinulog should perk up people and bring light to all. This is a sign of hope for everyone,” said Rama. With reports from Carmel Lois Matus, Carine Asutilla and Jason Baguia, Inquirer Visayas

source: lifestyle.inquirer.net

A gift of song with no time and cyberspace on Valentine’s Day

MANILA, Philippines – Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and you’re probably one of the many racking their brains on what to give your special someone.

When flowers, chocolates and stuffed toys have become too unoriginal and passé, why not revive the Filipino tradition of “Harana” or the serenade?

Risingstars.ph, an online karaoke site, allows you to do just that and more.

Using a computer, a microphone, a webcam and Internet connection, you can record yourself singing your favourite love song and send it as a packaged Valentine’s Day gift of songs.

Other websites offer similar services, but what makes RisingStars different is that it has a large collection that people can sing along to.

What this means is that instead of memorizing the lyrics to a song and playing a musical instrument to accompany it, a person can simply select a song from the list, sing along karaoke style, and not worry about the music anymore, since it will be recorded along with the person’s voice.

You can also be very creative and personalize your performance in your video.

Perform a skit, choreograph a dance or dress-up like your favourite singer while belting your favourite tunes, the possibilities are endless with Risingstars.ph. You can even record multiple songs when one song is not enough to tell your beloved how special they are.

What’s even better is that you can send these special Valentine’s gifts to loved ones anywhere around the world.

So start vocalizing and practice those songs, log on to http://www.risingstars.ph, and start singing your heart out.

source: http://technology.inquirer.net/8213/a-gift-of-song-with-no-time-and-cyberspace-on-valentines-day/