Doctor Nguyen Thi Huynh Mai, Head of the Inspection Team of the HCM City Health Department, announced on October 12 that the department found the bacteria in the sample of SuVi bottled drink water (21 litre bottle, manufacturing date September 28, 2009 and expiry date September 28,, 2010) manufactured by Suoi Viet Purified Water Company headquartered in Binh Hung Commune in Binh Chanh district.
Mai said that no microorganism is allowed to contain in any bottled drink water. The noteworthy thing here is that this is for the second time the product of the company is found as having bacteria. This means that the company did not do anything to improve the quality of its products
The HCM City health inspectors have released a decision to temporarily halt the production and business of Suoi Viet Company and forced the company to call back all under-quality products and destroy them.
The HCM City Health Department has also released the decision on halting the production of nearly ten bottled drink water workshops.
On the same day, Vietnamese consumers started when they read from newspapers that the US and Malaysian food control agencies have warned consumers not to eat candied and salty dried fruits originated from China and Taiwan as the products have high lead content which many cause diseases to human.
Tuoi tre newspaper’s reporters, who took a trip around HCM City, found out that foreign made salty and candied dried fruits are selling at many markets in the city, including Ben Thanh in district 1, An Dong and Kim Bien in district 5 and Binh Tay Market in district 6.
A saleswoman at Binh Tay Market said that the dried fruits have been carried from the north. “No one care where they are from, they just buy them because they like them,” she said
Saigon tiep thi’s reporters have also made a quick survey on the market. They said that it is unclear if the products of the 15 companies mentioned in the warnings of the US and Malaysian agencies are available on Vietnam’s market or not. All the products of this kind now available at the markets in the city do not have labels which show the origins and producers.
According to Doctor Pham Xuan Dung, Deputy Director of the HCM City Tumour Hospital, the long use of lead contaminated food will cause chronic kidney, blood and lung diseases and may cause fatality.
The Ministry of Health stipulates that the maximum allowed lead content in food is 2mg per every kilo of food.
On October 1, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released the warning that consumers should not eat dried fruits imports from 15 producers and distributors, mainly from China, because of the overly high content of lead in the products.
After that, the Government of Malaysia on October 8 also announced it prohibits the import and sale of dried fruits imported from the 15 companies.
Meanwhile, on the Ministry of Health’s website, one can only see the regulations on the allowed lead content in drink water.
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