DOH said fruits and vegetables covered in ashfall are safe to eat, but consumers need to wash them thoroughly.
Health Undersecretary Eric Domingo said that fruits and vegetables are safe to eat because they do not absorb ashfall, unlike animals whose bodies can be exposed to ashfall.
It also again reminded the public not to eat fish from Taal Lake, which is affected by ashfall or toxic chemicals.
Domingo refers explicitly to the tawilis and tilapia fishes that are abundant in Taal.
Read: DOH warns public not to buy, eat fishes from Taal Lake
“Hangga’t ’di tayo sigurado, might as well be cautious because we know that toxic substances have been thrown out of the volcano and na-dissolve ‘yan sa tubig…Kapag naingest natin ito, baka malipat ito sa katawan ng tao, itong toxins na ito,” Domingo added.
(As far as we are not sure, we may be well aware because we know that toxic substances have been thrown out of the volcano and are dissolved in water. When we ingest it, it can be transferred to the human body, these toxins.)
If anyone eats fishes of any kind from Taal Lake and Batangas, that person should watch out for the food poison symptoms.
These include abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea.
To date, the initial damage to the Taal eruption has reached P577.4 million. That includes 2,700 hectares of farmland and 2,000 livestock.