Where’s the banana ketchup? Filipino ingredients suddenly disappear from shelves, leaving Philly chefs scrambling

In early December, when Chance Anies, 33, the chef and owner of Tabachoy in Bella Vista, went shopping at Hung Vuong Market on Washington Avenue for bagoong, the Filipino shrimp paste, he noticed an alarming absence. He went to First Oriental, then other Asian markets in Philly, and then to several Asian pantry wholesalers. No luck.

Tabachoy’s bagoong caesar is their most popular dish, to the tune of roughly 110 salads a week. Craig LaBan named it one of the best dishes he had in 2023. But the crucial ingredient is bagoong, which gives the dressing its distinctive funk.

Anies normally has a stockpile of bagoong at the restaurant, and similarly, bottles of Jufran banana ketchup, which he uses at home and in summer at Tabachoy, to pair with Filipino barbecued meats. When his stash of both condiments wound down to the last few, he went shopping and came up empty handed.

A perfunctory Google search confirmed Anies’ greatest fears: It wasn’t just a Philly problem. It was everywhere. “When I googled them, I saw jars of bagoong on eBay for a lot of money. Walmart was selling a single jar for $49.99. I normally pay $3.49,” he said.

Filipino ingredients were disappearing off the shelves of grocery stores across the country. Filipinos were panic-buying bagoong, banana ketchup, lechon sauce, and other ingredients, due to an FDA-imposed DWPE (Detention Without Physical Examination) import alert which automatically stops “high-risk” items from getting past the border.

The primary ingredient that set off import alert 99-45 on Oct. 25, in regards to these Filipino pantry items, is a food additive called potassium iodate. (This alert affects imports coming from many countries, not solely the Philippines, and other food additives were also flagged.) It’s a dough strengthener that can interfere with thyroid function in large doses. Other ingredients flagged included benzoate, which can negatively affect the gut microbiome, and BHA, a potentially carcinogenic additive. Potassium iodate was banned in the EU in 1990, but it is actually required in the Philippines. “This is due to the Act for Salt Iodization Nationwide (ASIN), or Republic Act No. 8172, which was enacted in 1995. The ASIN law requires that all salt used for human and animal consumption be iodized to help prevent iodine deficiency disorders and improve the health and nutrition of the Filipino population,” reads the policy statement of the Philippines’ FDA.

Other shrimp paste, like those from Vietnam and Thailand, just aren’t the same. “The stuff we use is bagoong alamang, which has a very pink hue that I love. It brings color to the bicol express. It’s essentially poached tiny shrimp in a crazy pink sauce; it’s sweeter than other shrimp pastes. A lot of them, like the Vietnamese ones, are smoother in texture. You can see the exoskeletons in bagoong alamang which gives it a different texture, and it’s more funky,” Anies said.

At Tabachoy, I tasted a version of the bagoong caesar made without bagoong, substituting the ingredients with dried bonito flakes, and while satisfying, it was a mere shadow of its funky original. Anies had considered making his own, but it posed real obstacles. First, the timeline. Bagoong requires months long fermentation, not a simple project. “And if something goes wrong, there’s the risk of botulism. If you’re the health department reading this, I am not doing that, on the record. I am not making my own fermented shrimp paste!” said Anies.

And if something goes wrong, there’s the risk of botulism. If you’re the health department reading this, I am not doing that, on the record. I am not making my own fermented shrimp paste!

Just making fish sauce can take four to six months.

Another option is to purchase Filipino ingredients made in America. But it’s expensive. Fila Manila, a Virginia-based company that started manufacturing Filipino pantry items during the pandemic, makes adobo sauce, kare-kare sauce, and banana ketchup. Before the alert went out on Oct. 25, affecting Filipino imports, owner Jack Deleon was selling about 5,000 bottles of his banana ketchup (which doesn’t use potassium iodate) per month. Since the alert, he has seen a three times increase in sales. “At one point, we were one of the top-selling ketchups on Amazon — and that put us in league with Heinz, Hunt’s, and French’s,” said Deleon. But he doesn’t sell bagoong, and the product has a higher price point, which can be difficult for restaurants with narrow margins.

A 10-ounce bottle of Fila Manila’s banana ketchup retails for $9.50, in contrast to $4.95 for a 12-ounce bottle of Jufran banana ketchup.

Filipino ingredients are slowly trickling back onto shelves. Filipino news outlets have reported that NutriAsia has reformulated their sauces in recognition of the FDA alert.

This doesn’t mean they’re safe forever. The FDA is also weighing a ban on food coloring Red #3, which is sourced from petroleum and is a carcinogen. This will also affect imported banana ketchup and bagoong, though it is also found in many American-made foods such as candy corn, Hot Tamales, the cherries in fruit cocktail, and MorningStar veggie bacon.

And as for Tabachoy’s bagoong caesar, it’s still on the menu. Anies snagged a cartful of jars at Hung Vuong right before Christmas.