18/12/09: Hanoi to inspect rice gruel after southern scandal

Hanoi’s chief inspector in the health department, Nguyen Viet Cuong, on December 1 said they will take samples of rice gruel being sold in the market for tests this week.

Rice gruel sold mainly to children by many stalls in Ho Chi Minh City have been found using substances to keep it in “fresh” for days.

The capital’s move follows the Tuoi Tre newspaper’s exposure last week of banned chemicals found in samples that it collected from Ho Chi Minh City’s gruel stalls mainly targeting children.

According to Cuong, between three and four gruel suppliers are operating citywide and some of their products have already been provided to local schools.

Hanoi last year conducted tests on several gruel samples, but didn’t find any quality violations, he said.

Also on Tuesday, Nguyen Cong Khan, head of the health ministry’s Food Safety and Hygiene Administration, said his agency has asked HCMC to send test results on local gruel samples and planned to put rice gruel on the list of products needing post production tests.

Tests in HCMC in late November showed that all the samples taken by the local health department contained sodium benzoate, which helps keep the gruel from being spoiled after three days in normal condition.

The Ministry of Health doesn’t allow the chemical to be used in rice gruel, according to Huynh Le Thai Hoa, head of HCMC health department’s food safety and hygiene administration.

However, no announcement has been made about action against the gruel makers.

Dr Tran Van Ky of the Vietnam Association of Food Science and Technology said the chemical’s concentration as a preservative is limited by the Food and Drug Administration in the US to 0.1 percent by weight.

During its production, sodium benzoate generates a poisonous by-product which needs to be removed before putting into food, Ky said. If not, the consumer’s nervous system can be affected, especially of children and fetuses, he added.