Filipinos
Encyclopedia
Biscuit
A biscuit is a baked, edible, and commonly flour-based product. The term is used to apply to two distinctly different products in North America and the Commonwealth Nations....
snacks made by Kraft Foods
Kraft Foods
Kraft Foods Inc. is an American confectionery, food and beverage conglomerate. It markets many brands in more than 170 countries. 12 of its brands annually earn more than $1 billion worldwide: Cadbury, Jacobs, Kraft, LU, Maxwell House, Milka, Nabisco, Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia, Trident, Tang...
. In Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
they are produced and sold under the Artiach brand name. Under license to United Biscuits
United Biscuits
__FORCETOC__United Biscuits is a British multinational food manufacturer, makers of the BN biscuits, McVitie's biscuits, KP Nuts, Hula Hoops, The Real McCoy's crisps, Phileas Fogg snacks, Jacob's Cream Crackers, and Twiglets...
, in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
they are sold and produced locally under the Verkade
Verkade
Verkade is a Dutch manufacturing company. The company is headquartered in Zaandam and was one of the oldest existing family companies in the Netherlands until its takeover in 1990 by British United Biscuits, which in turn was taken over in 2006 by Blackstone Group and PAI Partners...
brand. They have drawn controversy for having the same name as people of the Philippines.
Variations
The standard Filipinos snack is ring shaped and come in several varieties coated in either milk chocolate, dark chocolateChocolate
Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...
, or white chocolate
White chocolate
White chocolate is a confectionery derivative of chocolate. It commonly consists of cocoa butter, sugar, milk solids and salt, and is characterized by a pale yellow or ivory appearance...
. Milk or dark chocolate versions feature a light colored biscuit. White chocolate versions feature a dark brown
Brown
Brown is a color term, denoting a range of composite colors produced by a mixture of orange, red, rose, or yellow with black or gray. The term is from Old English brún, in origin for any dusky or dark shade of color....
biscuit. These can be purchased in large rolls. The dark and white chocolate versions are also available in the Filipinos GoPack or Mini Filipinos, a smaller loose packet of four biscuits.
Filipinos Agujeros (holes) are crisp doughnut hole sized balls coated in either dark or white chocolate.
Filipinos Bigsticks are crispy 20 cm (8 in) stick shaped snacks covered with puffed rice
Puffed rice
Puffed rice is a type of puffed grain made from rice; usually made by heating rice kernels under high pressure in the presence of steam, though the method of manufacture varies widely.-Origin:Pori has been mentioned in various Tamil...
. These are coated in either dark or white chocolate.
Name
The Philippine National Historical Institute has stated "The cookies were inspired by 'rosquillo' biscuits produced in IloiloIloilo
Iloilo is a province of the Philippines located in the Western Visayas region. Iloilo occupies the southeast portion of Panay Island and is bordered by Antique Province to the west and Capiz Province and the Jintotolo Channel to the north. Just off Iloilo's southeast coast is Guimaras Province,...
and Negros and the Spaniards added another twist by coating it with brown or white chocolate."
Controversy
The government of the Philippines filed a diplomatic protest with the government of Spain, the European CommissionEuropean Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
, and then manufacturer Nabisco Iberia
Nabisco
Nabisco is an American brand of cookies and snacks. Headquartered in East Hanover, New Jersey, the company is a subsidiary of Illinois-based Kraft Foods. Nabisco's plant in Chicago, a production facility at 7300 S...
in 1999. The protest took offense with the use of the name "Filipinos", a term which can refer to the people of the Philippines, to market cookie and pretzel snacks and demanded Nabisco stop selling the product until the brand name was changed.
The resolution's author, Philippine Congressman Heherson Alvarez, claimed that the name of the cookie was offensive due to the apparent reference to their color, "dark outside and white inside". His resolution stated "These food items could be appropriately called by any other label, but the manufacturers have chosen our racial identity, and they are now making money out of these food items." On August 26, 1999 Philippine president Joseph Estrada
Joseph Estrada
Joseph "Erap" Ejercito Estrada was the 13th President of the Philippines, serving from 1998 until 2001. Estrada was the first person in the Post-EDSA era to be elected both to the presidency and vice-presidency.Estrada gained popularity as a film actor, playing the lead role in over 100 films in...
called the brand "an insult".
The protest was filed despite Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon's
Domingo Siazon, Jr.
Domingo L. Siazon, Jr. is the former Philippine Ambassador to Japan. In 1976, he was named Philippine Ambassador to Austria, where he concurrently served as Philippine Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Vienna and to the International Atomic Energy Agency...
initial reluctance on the matter. Siazon had reportedly said "he saw nothing wrong with the use of 'Filipinos' as a brand name, noting Austrians
Austrians
Austrians are a nation and ethnic group, consisting of the population of the Republic of Austria and its historical predecessor states who share a common Austrian culture and Austrian descent....
do not complain that small sausages are called 'Vienna sausages.'"