Alarm
over fish sauce quality
(22-06-2009)
What’s
in your favourite condiment?
 |
| Fish sauce produced by
Hong Dai Enterprise in the town of Duong Dong, in Kien Giang Province’s
Phu Quoc District. Health experts recommend consumers only purchase fish
sauces from well-known brands as some of the fish sauces on the market
are hazardous to health and could cause cancer. — VNA/VNS Photo Thanh
Vu |
HA NOI — Health experts
say many brands of fish sauce on the market are hazardous to health and could
cause cancer and recommend consumers only purchase well-known established
brands.
The Ministry of National
Defence’s Directorate for Standards and Quality director, Nguyen Van Tach,
says that results of tests conducted over the last three years showed that some
of the sauces contained harmful bacteria such as clostridium, which can cause
headaches and diarrhoea. Making matters worse, the labelling on the bottles is
printed by the companies themselves.
"Currently, fish
sauce companies write the quality labels themselves according to the Products
and Goods Quality Law. There’s no specific agency responsible for inspecting
the products after they are launched," says Vu Thi Bach Nga, head of the
Consumer Protection Office under the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s
Competition Management Department.
According to Tach,
enterprises often break hygiene regulations during the sauce-making process and
fail to clean equipment properly.
"Fish must be mixed
with salt right after being caught to assure their freshness, but it’s hard to
know as many enterprises buy fish without contracts," Tach says.
Cat Hai Joint Stock
Aquatic Processing and Services Company vice director Cao Minh Giang says fake
fish sauce makers often dilute pure fish sauce 20 times, and add toxic chemicals
that can be carcinogenic.
"It takes 1.2 kg of
fish to make a litre of sauce, and our company can only produce about 4 million
litres per year," Giang said.
"But as far as I
know, some enterprises in Ha Noi, where there are no sources of fresh fish, can
produce 18 million litres per year."
Officials says that it is
the responsibility of consumers to file a complaint when they have bad-quality
fish sauce. Often, they just simply throw it away.
Nguyen Mac Chinh, a
resident in Tay Son Street, says she is overwhelmed by the number of products on
the shelves, and doesn’t trust the labelling on the bottles.
"All of the products
are labelled high-quality and claim to be made of fresh fish, such as salmon,
sardine, mackerel or anchovy," Chinh says.
When she gets a bad
bottle, she says she often just throws it away and buys another.
"It wastes time
complaining about a bottle of fish sauce. I would make a complaint if it was an
expensive product like a washing machine or a refrigerator," Chinh says.
Do Van Nam from the
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Department of Science,
Technology and Environment says that about 200 million litres of fish sauce is
produced each year, mostly for the domestic market. Bach Mai Hospital’s
Detoxification Centre vice director Pham Due says that he knew of no instances
where a patient had been poisoned by fish sauce.
"It’s hard to be
poisoned as people do not consume much even if it is used in every meal. A small
amount will not harm people right after using it but it will affect their health
and cause chronic diseases if consumed over a long period and it contains toxic
chemicals," Due says.
According to health
experts, consumers should buy products from well-known manufacturers based in
coastal areas, such as Phu Quoc, Nha Trang and Cat Hai.
A good fish sauce should
have an amine and protein ration of more than 30 per cent and there should be no
precipitate when the bottle is inverted.
"It’s hard to
distinguish between the good and bad ones unless you try it," says Chinh,
who usually picks a sauce made from salmon.
Nguyen Thi Quynh Chi from
the Viet Nam Standards and Consumer Organisation says it should be made easier
for consumers to complain about bad fish sauce and that repeat offenders should
be punished. — VNS