Hanoi- Health authorities have ordered a nationwide effort to recall unsafe soy sauce, after tests in several cities showed many brands contained dangerous levels of a known carcinogen, Vietnamese press reported Monday. Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City last month banned 17 brands of soy sauce after tests showed they exceeded acceptable levels of the carcinogen 3-MCPD. Tests last week in Hanoi and Danang turned up more unsafe brands, leading the Ministry of Health to issue the order for a national recall last Friday.
The soy sauce brands involved are sold primarily to the domestic market, though it was not clear whether some might have been exported. The manufacturers are all local Vietnamese companies, except for Miwon Vietnam, a subsidiary of South Korea's Miwon food conglomerate. Miwon Vietnam officials disputed the government's findings that its soy sauce was dangerous.
"We have been unjustly victimized," Le Van Oanh, sales manager of Miwon Vietnam's Hanoi branch, said Monday. "We have followed all the government's regulations very closely."
Bui Dinh Thang, assistant to Miwon Vietnam's general director, said the company's own tests contradicted those of the government laboratory.
"We have done the test several times at our lab in South Korea," Thang said. "Our test shows only 0.9 parts per million. The Vietnamese government's tests showed 2.4 parts per million." A level of 1 part per million of 3-MCPD is considered safe, according to government standards.
Oanh said the company had managed to recall 80 per cent of its product from retailers. Miwon would not disclose how large a fine the government had asked it to pay, saying it would dispute the charge pending the results of further tests at its South Korean laboratory.
Soy sauce manufacturers say the carcinogenic 3-MCPD emerges as a result of chemical reactions between ingredients used to boost the sauce's protein content.
Last week, Vietnamese press reported that Ho Chi Minh City health officials had initially detected high levels of 3-MCPD in soy sauce in 2001, but had not moved to recall the offending brands. The department has been sharply criticized for the delay.
Department officials have explained that they lacked regulations on 3-MCPD until 2005, and were thus unable to take action.
Food safety issues surface regularly in Vietnam, but government-mandated recalls are rare. In 2006, food safety authorities announced that tests showed most locally sold rice noodles contained quantities of formaldehyde and borax, but no large-scale actions were undertaken.
