Official warns of watchdogs but keeps mum on tainted salamis

Santo Domingo.- Despite failing to make good on disclosing the names of the brands of salami found with fecal coliform and other contaminants, Consumer Protection Agency director Altagracia Paulino on Sunday warned that the second study announced for sausages should be conducted with the same protocol as the first; a sampling of businesses nationwide.

She said it wouldn’t be valid if the second sausage-making sampling is conducted only in the companies. "It has to be just like we’ve done to retrace the same steps, collect samples from the entire country, the same number of samples, which will now be more, because they’ll involve businesses.”

Interviewed by Federico Mendez on Santo Domingo TV, the official said she’ll provide the protocol her agency used for the study. "We must go where it went, to Dajabón, Jimaní, Barahona, Higuey, Hato Mayor, El Seibo, all those places which we combed with 258 samples and there weren’t more because some places didn’t have all the brands."

She warned that what occurred was an alert both to industry and regulators that there are watchdogs now.