For the past decade, the Chau Phat business in Ho Chi Minh City has been using banned chemicals to produce noodles, distributing hundreds of tons of the toxic product into the market.

On January 12, the Economic Police Department of Ho Chi Minh City announced it had initiated legal proceedings against Vuong Luong Toan (born 1981) on charges of "violating food safety regulations."

Toan is the registered owner of Chau Phat, a noodle manufacturing and trading business located on Luy Ban Bich Street in Phu Thanh Ward, Ho Chi Minh City.

In mid-December 2025, economic police officers conducted a surprise raid on the Chau Phat facility. They caught several workers red-handed mixing chemicals into noodle dough under unsanitary and unsafe working conditions.

Authorities confiscated 820kg of finished noodles found to contain harmful chemical additives.

Investigations revealed that Vuong Luong Toan was the mastermind behind the operation, leading a group that specialized in producing chemically-treated noodles, which were then sold to eateries and restaurants across the city.

Toan admitted that for the past ten years, he had used a combination of illegal substances - including borax, soda, and silicate solution - to give the noodles a chewy texture, soft bite, and appealing color.

These chemicals are banned in food production due to their serious health risks to consumers.

According to the police, Toan’s facility produced approximately 600 to 700 kilograms of chemically-treated noodles every day. In just the past three years alone, an estimated 800 tons of these toxic noodles were sold into the market.

Over the ten-year period, the total volume of noodles tainted with banned chemicals that entered circulation is believed to be exceptionally high.

Authorities are continuing to expand the investigation to determine the involvement of other individuals connected to the operation.

Dam De