Ministry of Health: 100% fish sauce tested safe

The Department of Food Safety - Ministry of Health has just officially released the results of fish sauce testing at the request of the Prime Minister.347/247 fish sauce samples tested did not detect inorganic arsenic.

According to the Ministry of Health, the information that fish sauce is "water mixed with chemicals" and that fish sauce is contaminated with arsenic (arsenic is simply the name for inorganic arsenic) affecting human health is inaccurate, causing panic among people, and affecting the production and trading of fish sauce, including fish sauce produced by traditional and industrial methods.

» Prime Minister requests immediate official information on fish sauce quality

100% fish sauce is tested and found safe by the Ministry of Health

The Department said that on October 12, the Ministry of Health established an interdisciplinary inspection team including representatives from the Ministries of Health, Industry and Trade, Agriculture and Rural Development and relevant agencies to inspect compliance with food safety laws in the production and trading of fish sauce in five provinces and cities: Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan, and Binh Thuan.

Accordingly, the inspection team took 247 random samples of 210 different brands of fish sauce products from 82 production facilities (both traditional and industrial) in the market and some supermarkets, to test at 4 leading testing institutes of the health sector, namely the National Institute of Food Safety and Hygiene, the Institute of Nutrition, the Ho Chi Minh City Institute of Public Health and the Nha Trang Pasteur Institute.

The results showed that 247/247 (100%) of the fish sauce samples tested did not detect inorganic arsenic.

100% of fish sauce samples tested also did not detect heavy metals: lead, mercury and cadmium.

The test results also did not detect any fish sauce samples produced from water and chemicals. The inspected facilities all produced fish sauce from raw materials of fish and salt, or fish sauce concentrate (produced from fish and salt) and food additives in different proportions.

247/247 (100%) of fish sauce samples tested did not detect inorganic arsenic. Photo courtesy

The Food Safety Department noted that the use of food additives in fish sauce production is allowed if the additives are on the permitted list, are for the right users, do not exceed the prescribed threshold, ensure purity and do not specify the maximum amount of food additives allowed to be used in a food product.

This regulation of the Ministry of Health is completely consistent with the regulations of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CODEX), other countries in the world and in the ASEAN region.

Thus, according to the Ministry of Health, the information that fish sauce is "water mixed with chemicals", fish sauce is contaminated with arsenic (arsenic is simply called inorganic arsenic) affecting human health is incorrect, causing panic among people, and affecting the production and trading of fish sauce, including fish sauce produced by traditional and industrial methods.

The Food Safety Department said that to protect the health and interests of consumers and the legitimate business interests of enterprises according to the provisions of law, the provision of information related to food safety must be objective, accurate, honest, complete and timely.

Aries/vneconomy