A group of bakers Sunday appealed to the Department of Health (DoH) and Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) to speed up the investigation if the flour from Turkey is safe for consumption.

Philippine Federation of Bakers Association Inc. (PFBAI) president Lucito Chavez also urged DoH and BFAD officials to issue a certification if the Turkish flour was indeed bad for a person's health.

“Why don't they issue certificates to prevent bakers to use Turkish flour? I do believe that the issue on Turkish flour is just a business strategy and a way to malign the product,” he told reporters during the weekly Tinapayan forum.

“If the flour is really dangerous to the people then shouldn't those people who ate bread and pastries could have been dead by now?” he asked.

Chavez also stressed that bakers in the country should not be faulted for using Turkish flour since the government had not yet issue a certification banning the said product.

“Or better yet they should start confiscating the flour through the Bureau of Customs upon the arrival of the product in the country so that it won't be sold in the market,” he added.

It was learned that the price of the imported flour was P100 to P200 lower as compared to the local flour in the market.

Last month, Senator Aquilino Pimentel said that the government should stop small bakers from using contaminated and potentially toxic flour from Turkey in producing the so-called poor man’s bread, like pan de sal, monay, pan de coco and pan de limon.

Pimentel said that the flour from Turkey, which was described to be darker in color, has coarser texture and sometimes have an offensive smell.

“As always, it is the poor Filipinos who suffer, in this case probably not knowing the risk to their health of that bread they are eating,” he said.

“If even in Turkey they have expressed misgivings as to the quality and safety of their flour, more so should we,” Pimentel said. “No one wants to eat cancer-causing bread.”