After discovering 6 bean sprout production facilities in Dak Lak using banned substances and 1 ham production facility in Da Nang using borax, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development issued a document directing localities to thoroughly prevent food safety violations before, during and after the Lunar New Year and the spring festival season in 2025.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, recently, authorities in a number of localities have continuously discovered violations of food safety laws in food production, preliminary processing, and preparation (6 bean sprout production facilities using banned substances/substances not on the list of permitted substances in Dak Lak ; 1 ham production facility using borax in Da Nang).
In order to further strengthen the work of ensuring food hygiene and safety of agricultural, forestry and fishery products, thoroughly prevent food safety violations in people's regular food consumption, especially before, during and after the Lunar New Year and the spring festival season with high consumption demand, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development requests the People's Committees of provinces and cities to direct their affiliated specialized agencies and authorities at all levels to focus on the following contents:
Coordinate with information and communication agencies to disseminate legal regulations on food safety, the harms and consequences of using banned substances/substances not on the permitted list in the initial production, harvesting, preservation, preliminary processing, and processing of agricultural, forestry, and aquatic products; Disseminate, publicize, and update information so that consumers can choose agricultural products with clear origins, from production, preliminary processing, processing, and trading establishments that meet food safety regulations; Strengthen information and communication on food safety risks.
Bean sprouts soaked in chemicals were discovered by Dak Lak provincial authorities in December 2024. Photo: Provided by the police
Actively coordinate with members of the Fatherland Front Committee to launch and implement a movement to encourage and mobilize people to participate in monitoring and ensuring food hygiene and safety from the grassroots level; build an information channel to receive feedback and denunciations of food safety violations from the grassroots level.
Direct food safety management agencies to organize interdisciplinary working groups and, according to assigned and decentralized functions, inspect and examine establishments producing and trading agricultural food products, especially establishments producing and trading agricultural food products with high risks of causing food safety problems and high consumer demand during holidays and Tet (instant products, products requiring special storage conditions, short shelf life; products that are easily abused using banned substances, substances not on the list of permitted substances, objects containing natural toxins, products with high risks of pathogenic microorganisms, etc.).
Violations of food safety that are detected must be strictly handled, ensuring deterrence and made public in the mass media in accordance with the provisions of law.
Allocate resources for specialized agencies to organize enhanced sampling and monitoring of agricultural products at high risk of food safety at production, purchasing, preliminary processing, processing facilities, wholesale markets, and specialized agricultural product trading establishments.
As Dan Viet reported, on December 26, 2024, Dak Lak police initiated a case and temporarily detained 4 suspects from 6 establishments using the active ingredient "6-Benzylaminopurine" to soak and ferment nearly 3,000 tons of bean sprouts. Accordingly, the substance "6-Benzylaminopurine" is a chemical that is not on the list of chemicals permitted for use in Vietnam, according to the provisions of Circular No. 09/2023/TT-BNNPTNT dated October 24, 2023 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Similarly, in Da Nang, on December 28, the Economic Police Department of Da Nang City Police initiated a case and prosecuted a couple who used borax to make beef and pork patties.
Previously, from December 20 to 27, the Economic Police Department coordinated with functional forces to continuously conduct surprise inspections of many establishments.
Checking the PXT sausage production facility at 41 Nhon Hoa 12 (Hoa An ward, Cam Le district) owned by Mr. Pham Xu Ty, the police discovered nearly 1 ton of various types of sausages (beef sausage, pork sausage, pork skin sausage, minced sausage). Through quick testing, the authorities discovered that all of these sausages were positive for borax (Sodium Borate).
Police said borax is quite toxic to the body. Therefore, borax is not on the list of additives allowed for use in food processing. Borax can cause acute poisoning, poisoning users with low doses of 5 grams or more, and can lead to death.
Source: https://danviet.vn/tu-vu-tam-chat-cam-vao-gia-do-o-dak-lak-han-the-vao-gio-cha-o-da-nang-bo-nnptnt-chi-dao-nong-20250106133155922.htm
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