Courtesy: Tasting Tables
THE Court of Appeals has upheld an order of the Department of Health directing a distributor to pay a P20,000 fine after bugs were found in a box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates it had imported and sold in a supermarket.
In a decision penned by Associate Justice Fernanda Lampas Peralta, the DOH directed Mega Market Inc. to pay the fine after finding it liable for violating the Consumer Act of the Philippines for selling “adulterated food.”
This was after a supermarket shopper, Kerima Anima, bought a box of 16 Ferrero Rocher chocolates in SM Hypermarket Bicutan in 2012 and found “bugs crawling from inside the chocolate.”
Anima had the remaining chocolates tested by the Food and Drug Administration after failing to come to an amicable settlement with Mega Market.
The FDA said the chocolates were “infested with beetles, larvae and presence of weblike netting.” These made it unfit for human consumption, it said.
Anima then filed a complaint with the DOH Consumer Arbitration Office-National Capital Region, which then gave credence to the FDA report. It said there was no evidence to support Mega Market’s claim that it was impossible for foreign matters to enter the chocolates due to careful handling and inspection.
The DOH Secretary at that time upheld the findings of the DOH CAO-NCR and directed Mega Market to pay a P20,000 fine. It also directed Mega Market to reimburse the value of the one pack of chocolates.
Mega Market challenged the ruling before the Court of Appeals.
But in upholding the finding of the DOH Secretary, the CA Second Division said Anima was able to show substantial evidence that Mega Market violated the Consumer Act by distributing adulterated food.
Mega Market, on the other hand, was unable to substantiate its contention that the contamination could have occurred during the nine-day period between the opening of the box of chocolates and their submission for testing to the FDA, it said.
“Considering the unanimous factual findings of the DOH CAO-NCR and public respondent Secretary of DOH which are supported by substantial evidence and based on the law and jurisprudence, the Court accords not only respect, but also finality to their findings,” it said.
