The Ministry of Agriculture discovered nearly 100 chili powder samples containing cancer-causing toxins.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has just announced the results of inspections of chili powder and dried chili raw materials at production facilities, traditional markets and supermarkets nationwide.

Accordingly, 2 inspection teams conducted 3 rounds of inspections with 262 samples of chili powder and dried chili raw materials at production facilities, business households in traditional markets and supermarkets. The results showed that the number of samples exceeding the allowable Aflatoxin residue threshold was 95 samples/262 samples, accounting for 36.25%.

Many chili samples taken from 10 provinces and cities contain aflatoxin residue that causes liver cancer.

Aflatoxin is toxic and possibly carcinogenic. It is a mycotoxin naturally produced by some species of Aspergillus, a type of mold.

The rate of samples exceeding the Aflatoxin residue threshold at production facilities and storage warehouses accounted for 30.7%, at business households in markets accounted for 48.6%, and at supermarkets accounted for 21.62%.

Mr. Nguyen Van Tien, Acting Chief Inspector of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, stated that most establishments producing, processing, preserving, and trading dried chili powder are household-scale, and processing and preservation conditions are not guaranteed, leading to the presence of Aflatoxin mycotoxin in chili powder products.

In addition, it is also due to the lack of understanding of production and preservation processes by producers and traders to avoid creating toxins.

Another reason also pointed out by the representative of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is that many localities have high humidity, a lot of rain, no drying equipment, mainly natural drying, and poor packaging, leading to chili powder often being contaminated with molds Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus, which are the main causes of Aflatoxin.

Currently, the Inspectorate of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Department of Agricultural, Forestry and Fishery Product Quality Management is coordinating with the Department of Rural Security (A86) to handle establishments producing, importing and trading chili powder in violation.

The inspection team also informed that there were 5 companies importing and trading chili powder with Certificates of product ensuring food safety, but there were many imported shipments during this time without withdrawing samples for quality testing, including the Aflatoxin mycotoxin index.

The inspection team requested the facilities to strictly ensure production and storage conditions according to regulations. In addition, they also checked and monitored the quality of not only chili powder but also agricultural products at risk of mold contamination such as peanuts, beans, pepper, cashews, etc.

The delegation has drawn up administrative violation records for 5 production and import establishments with violations and proposed to impose fines of 110 million VND. All violating goods will be confiscated and destroyed.