100% of instant noodles and fresh bamboo shoots contain oxalic acid, causing kidney stones.

The test results were announced by Prof. Dr. Chu Pham Ngoc Son, Vice President of the Public Health Association, on the afternoon of December 26, at a food safety conference held in Ho Chi Minh City, shocking public opinion: 100% of instant noodle and fresh bamboo shoot samples contained oxalic acid - the agent that causes kidney stones...

Many everyday foods found to contain oxalic acid

Recently, authorities have continuously discovered that many products made from flour contain this toxic chemical. Specifically, recently, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Food Safety and Hygiene analyzed 4 samples of seitan, dry rice noodles, and dry noodles collected from several business locations in the city, and all 4 contained oxalic acid.

In early July 2013, in 7 samples of fresh vermicelli, rice noodles, and foods made from rice randomly taken from small retail outlets in the market, through analysis, 2 samples were found to contain oxalic acid with contents of 54.5 and 304 mg/1kg.

Most recently, the Technical Center for Standards - Measurement - Quality III, headquartered in Ho Chi Minh City, analyzed samples of pickled bamboo shoots from Mr. Nguyen Van Lam's processing facility (Thai Binh commune, Chau Thanh district, Tay Ninh) using oxalic acid.

Many dried foods also contain oxalic acid.

According to his confession, Mr. Lam bought about 100 tons of bamboo shoots and bamboo shoots to soak in salt to sell to markets in Tay Ninh. By the time of the inspection, this facility had put about 30 tons on the market. The results of the examination of 6 samples showed that the substance that Mr. Lam's facility used to bleach the bamboo shoots was oxalic acid.

According to the announcement of Professor, Dr. Chu Pham Ngoc Son, from the end of June to December 10, 2013, Hai Dang Chromatography Science and Technology Service Joint Stock Company analyzed 873 samples of vermicelli, pho, hu tieu; raw powder; instant noodles; fresh bamboo shoots; pickled bamboo shoots; wontons, wood ear mushrooms, sponge cake, rice rolls, carrots, tea... and discovered that 363 samples (accounting for 41.58%) had very high levels of oxalic acid.

It is worth mentioning that, among them, through analysis of 62 instant noodle samples (domestic and imported), 100% had the presence of oxalic acid with a concentration of about (30.8 - 449mg/kg); 9 fresh bamboo shoot samples, all 9 had oxalic acid (295 - 3,080mg/kg); 25/26 pickled bamboo shoot samples (96.15%) had oxalic acid. In addition, 35/54 samples of dumplings, wood ear mushrooms, sponge cakes, rice rolls, carrots, and tea had oxalic acid concentrations from 73.5 - 293mg/kg...

Oxalic Acid: The Culprit That Causes Kidney Stones

The issue that people are concerned about is, when oxalic acid is present in food, what harm will it cause to the health of the user? In fact, this type of acid is present in many natural foods such as roasted peanuts (131mg/100g), amaranth leaves (530mg/100g); bamboo shoots (333mg/100g), roasted cashews (263mg/100g)...; however, it is necessary to clearly distinguish whether oxalic acid is naturally present or is added by the production facility, which is not easy.

Many processing facilities claim not to use oxalic acid in the production process, but why did the authorities detect this chemical when testing? If oxalic acid is abused for bleaching, instant noodles and dried noodles need to be yellow to be eye-catching, and do not need to be bleached, but the acid is still detected.

Many types of vermicelli were found to be contaminated with oxalic acid, causing concern among consumers.

Professor Son said that the input material for production is flour, which already contains oxalic acid to whiten the flour. Specifically, through analysis of 353 flour samples, 120 samples contained oxalic acid with a concentration of about 32.4-374mg/kg. Meanwhile, flour is the main ingredient used to produce cakes, vermicelli, noodles, etc.

The gluten produced by Dinh Thanh Le factory was recently found to contain oxalic acid. When working with the authorities, the owner of this factory repeatedly complained that gluten produced from wheat flour and salt has a yellow color and does not need to be bleached.

According to Professor Son, if classified according to the international GHS system, oxalic acid is warned to be dangerous and is used for industrial cleaning. Up to this point, in Vietnam, oxalic acid is not on the list of permitted food additives, so it cannot be added to food for any reason. Oxalic acid is very harmful to human health. In the body, it tends to precipitate when it meets nutrients containing calcium. If you use foods containing oxalic acid for a long time, this precipitation will be harmful to the kidneys, causing kidney stones or deposits in the joints.

Dr. Du Thi Ngoc Thu - Department of Surgery - Urology, Cho Ray Hospital - warns: If oxalic acid or oxalate is found in natural fruits, it is not toxic, but for foods that use bleach, including bleach with oxalic acid chemicals, it will be very harmful.

According to Labor