The Savor Filipino / Filipino Food Movement is a marketing ploy created by Ramar Foods to deflect criticism of the company’s use of Philippine brands such as Magnolia ice cream without the consent of the originators and owners.
It is part of the #OMGpeke scandal involving the American company Ramar Foods, which pirated San Miguel’s brand Magnolia — including the widely recognized logo — to use on ice cream manufactured by Ramar in Northern California with no licensing from San Miguel.
Magnolia is a Philippine ice-cream brand whose origins clearly go back to the 1920s. It has belonged to the San Miguel company for most of its history.
In the 1970s, a totally unaffiliated Filipino American family in California USA started marking their own ice-cream products with the “Magnolia” name in order to capitalize on the goodwill that the original Magnolia had developed among Filipinos from the old country.
The Filipino American family Quesada, operating as the Ramar company, filed a trademark application claiming the Magnolia mark for their exclusive use in the United States. The fact that San Miguel had been using the Magnolia name and logo for much longer in the Philippines and was the originator of that name and logo was irrelevant under U.S. law.
The “Filipino Food Movement” is officially registered as a corporation in the state of California under the name of Primo Quesada. The Quesada family owns and operates Ramar Foods, the company that pirated the Magnolia brand of ice cream from the Philippines.
Entity Name: THE FILIPINO FOOD MOVEMENT
Entity Number: C3813250
Date Filed: 08/03/2015
Status: ACTIVE
Jurisdiction: CALIFORNIA
Entity Address: 1101 RAILROAD LN
Entity City, State, Zip: PITTSBURG CA 94565
Agent for Service of Process: PRIMO JOHN QUESADA
Agent Address: 1101 RAILROAD LN
Agent City, State, Zip: PITTSBURG CA 94565
Brands produced by Ramar Foods:
Magnolia Ice Cream, Magnolia Meats, Magnolia Beef Tapa, Magnolia Longanisa (sic), Magnolia Tocino, Magnolia Cocktail Hotdogs, Orientex Frozen Lumpia, Pampanga’s Best USA, Frescano, Manila Gold Frozen Calamansi, Baguio, So Naimas, Bestaste Shu Mai, Turo-Turo Gourmet, Kusina ni Maria
We strongly urge you to BOYCOTT the whole line of items produced by this company. Do not let your hard-earned dollars go to trademark pirates.
Email and call the stores that carry these products and tell them how you feel about the unethical acts of this company that real Filipinos refuse to support.
Despite the fact that San Miguel Philippines created the Magnolia Ice Cream brand in the 1920s, SMC is prohibited from selling its Pinoy ice cream in the USA under the Magnolia name. Why? Because the Quesada family (Ramar company) trademarked the Magnolia logo for their own exclusive use!!
A company in the United States has been marking their own ice-cream products with the “Magnolia” name, using San Miguel’s iconic oval logo.
That company Ramar has no affiliation with San Miguel Philippines. Even today, many Filipino Americans assume that the Magnolia ice-cream they eat in the USA is related to the Magnolia in the Philippines. It is not.
“The Filipino Food Movement” was formally registered as a corporation by the OMGpeke company in 2015.
Contrary to what casual observers have said about FFM being non-proprietary, it is in fact an owned entity that was founded and is under the stewardship of people representing the same company that pirated at least two food brand names from the Philippines — Magnolia and Pampanga’s Best.