Vietnam’s Food Safety Authority under the Ministry of Health has issued an urgent directive to review and suspend the use of certain HiPP baby food products nationwide, following a recall warning from Austrian authorities over suspected contamination with rodenticide.

In an official dispatch sent to provincial health departments, the Ho Chi Minh City Food Safety Authority and local food safety agencies, the regulator warned about potential risks linked to HiPP weaning food products.

According to the notice, on April 19, the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety announced that HiPP, a German - Swiss baby food manufacturer, in coordination with the SPAR supermarket chain, had recalled all jars of its “Vegetable Carrot with Potato” product, 190 grams in size, from approximately 1,500 stores across Austria. The recall was prompted by suspicions that the product may contain rodenticide.

To ensure consumer safety, Vietnamese authorities have requested local agencies to urgently review product registrations and self-declarations related to HiPP baby food jars.

They are also instructed to work with companies responsible for distributing these products, if present in Vietnam, and to require immediate notification to distributors and consumers to stop using the affected items. A recall must be conducted in line with the manufacturer’s recommendations, with detailed reporting on import volumes, sales figures and remaining stock, along with proposed handling measures.

At the same time, authorities are tasked with informing the public to avoid using the implicated batches and to report the results of their actions to the Food Safety Authority before April 27.

The agency has also requested the Vietnam E-commerce and Digital Economy Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade to instruct online platforms and related vendors to suspend the sale of the affected products, if available in Vietnam. Listings for substandard goods must be removed and handled in accordance with legal regulations.

The move comes amid a series of recent food safety alerts involving imported products. The Ministry of Health has previously issued multiple warnings regarding certain batches of imported powdered milk suspected of containing harmful toxins, reinforcing the need for stricter monitoring and rapid response mechanisms to protect consumers, particularly young children.

N. Huyen