The Department of Agriculture (DA), through the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI), said it filed a complaint against Chastity Consumer Goods Trading for allegedly misdeclaring imported onions as processed food, in violation of the Food Safety Act and the Plant Quarantine Law of 1978.
The BPI lodged the complaint with the Olongapo City Prosecutor’s office following the confiscation of 6,395 stacks of yellow onions.
Authorities reportedly discovered thousands of cartons of yellow onions in a shipment that was declared as frozen fish egg balls.
The declaration of processed food was outside BPI’s jurisdiction, but the technically smuggled onions required urgent attention from the BPI, it said.
The National Plant Quarantine Services ordered the investigation after reports suggested the presence of undeclared agricultural products. Officials from BPI, the Bureau of Customs (BOC), and other port authorities confirmed the misdeclaration.
