@Blendz 28 September 2021 more from that month

Late upload of my vegan dinner. I actually prepared the ingredients this morning but I cooked it just this afternoon for dinner and the remaining pansit-bihon will be for breakfast tomorrow. And while I'm preparing especially the carrots, I saw this post about low priced smuggled carrots from China flooding in the public markets in different parts of the country. Even my cousin-in-law told me that these were mostly what she saw in malls. Previous carrot imports from China were found to have formalin as preservatives to last for 3 months on storage. These carrots were usually bigger with less blemish on the skin, and no stems compared to local carrots with not so good skin and with stems. Good thing my sister-in-law bought the local carrots and not with that formalin. Also just this afternoon, I saw another tons of smuggled onions confiscated by BOC again from China and was declared as another food items. Haisst, we need to be careful with vegetables and fruits we buy for if it is smuggled, it will affect our local farmers' income, will have risk of entry of pests and diseases to our native plants and dangerous to our health. But smuggled or not, we need to wash and soak fruits and veggies in water with salt or vinegar for 20 minutes or an hour to remove pesticides and bacteria unless you grow your own food, it's more safe than in the market. Credits to Balita Probinsya and naturophaty-uk.com