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Food importers crying about new food quarantine regulations
Vietnamese management agencies have suddenly tightened control over food imports; importers say they are suffering losses because they didn’t have time to prepare for the new regulations.
Just in the last half a month, management agencies have reported a series of cases in which imported food did not meet standards for food hygiene.
The noteworthy thing is that the contaminated food was to be sold at supermarkets, not at traditional markets or pavement shops as some might have expected.
One week ago, the veterinary sub-department in district 8 in HCM City discovered 125 consignments of products owned by Ha Long Company in Saigon Co-op’s cold storage from which the warning ‘this product was irradiated’ had been removed.
Phan Dinh Tung, Deputy Director of Ha Long Company, argued that only 12 of the 125 consignments of products had had the warnings removed.
Most recently, the Binh Duong Veterinary Sub-department discovered 27 tonnes of contaminated frozen food in storage of the retailer Metro Cash & Carry. When examining 18 frozen meat items at depots of Metro in Binh Duong province, the agency discovered 705 kilogrammes of beef infected with E-Coli and Coliform at levels 2.4 times higher than the allowed levels, and 27 tonnes of chicken infected with S.aureus in the concentration 10 times higher than the permitted threshold.
Metro Cash & Carry Vietnam, in the document sent to the Binh Duong Veterinary Sub-department, asked for permission to irradiate the products for sale to consumers, or to use the products as feed for crocodiles.
While Metro is seeking a solution, it has been asked to keep the products in a separate area and label them ‘products waiting for treatment’.
Ta Trong Khang, Deputy Head of the Binh Duong Veterinary Sub-department, said he reported the case to local authorities for a final decision.
“The products will not be allowed to be irradiated for domestic consumption as the animal health department has prohibited the irradiation of contaminated food,” Khang said. “In the world, irradiated food is allowed to be sold, but the irradiation is carried out on clean food to preserve the food for a longer time.”
Hundreds of containers of imported food are now lying at ports in HCM City, waiting for veterinary agency to take samples for testing before they get cleared. Do Binh Sanh, Director of Giang Ha Trade Service and Import-Export Company, said that not all enterprises import food which violates hygiene standards. If they have to keep their imports at ports for examination, clean food is also at risk of ‘going off’.
Ca Hao
Vietnamnet
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