VietNamNet Bridge – The city's inter-sectoral inspectors uncovered violations of food hygiene and safety in some local markets and super-markets in a raid conducted last weekend.


The violations included selling imported foods without sub-labels in Vietnamese, expiry date and instructions for preservation.

The inspectors, led by Le Anh Tuan, director of the city's Health Department, fined Van Ho Supermarket located in Hai Ba Trung District VND6 million (US$308) for selling grapes, apples and tamarind imported from Thailand without Vietnamese labelling.

Meat, seafood and yoghurt were found in the same freezing compartment in the supermarket.

However, a market officer explained that the goods were substandard so the supermarket had put them into the same compartment to return to suppliers.

No fake eggs found

No artificial Chinese-made eggs have been found for sale, but more inspections would be carried out in the coming time, said director of the Viet Nam Food Administration Nguyen Cong Khan on Tuesday.

"It is difficult to fake raw eggs but easy to fake boiled eggs and the fake eggs have slipped into Viet Nam. It is difficult to differentiate between artificial and natural eggs," said head of the Livestock Breeding Department Hoang Kim Giao.

A Chinese newspaper reported on Monday that many companies in the country were posted online adverts promoting artificial egg making technology.

Newspaper reporters paid US$136 to buy the technology.

Two samples of hot pot spices of unclear origin from Hai Ba Trung District's Hom Market and Van Ho Supermarket and samples of hot pot spices and chilli sauce produced by Xuan Loc, Thuan Phat, Thinh Phat, Trung Thanh and Cholimex companies were also taken for testing.

The tests were aimed to calculate the amount of industrial food colouring used. The results showed that samples conformed to food safety standards.

Inspectors seized the rest of the samples for more tests.

Nguyen Van Hieu, deputy head of the People's Committee of Hai Ba Trung District said, this year the district had fined 73 local producers VND332 million ($17,000), revoked the business licences of five producers and forced five others to close for violating food hygiene and safety regulations.

Tuan of the city's Health Department said that over 27,000 of 43,000 producers citywide had received certificates of food hygiene and safety.

The city has planned to set up six inspection teams to increase checks during the upcoming Tet (Lunar New Year).

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News