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Alarm over fish sauce quality

Update: June, 21/2009 - 00:00

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

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