Every day, 200kg of bleached and dyed bamboo shoots are smuggled into the market.

(Baonghean.vn) - According to Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Viet Nhi - Deputy Head of the Environmental Crime Prevention Police Department (PC49), these facilities have been operating for decades, smuggling about 200kg of pre-processed fresh bamboo shoots into the market every day.

As reported by Nghe An Newspaper on April 5, the Environmental Crime Prevention Police Department (Nghe An Provincial Police) inspected and discovered two fresh bamboo shoot production facilities in Block 2, Doi Cung Ward (Vinh City) using bleach and dyes for bamboo shoots of unknown origin.

After the discovery, the authorities decided to temporarily detain the above chemicals; at the same time, they sealed more than 25 tons of bamboo shoots from these two facilities to serve the investigation.

The chemicals of two fresh bamboo shoot production facilities have been temporarily detained according to regulations.

It is known that when the police force raided the fresh bamboo shoot processing facility of Mr. Le Duc Son, they discovered about 14 tons of bamboo shoots contained in bags of snake carcasses in the warehouse, which were emitting a foul odor, and were estimated to have been gathered for a period of 6 months to 1 year. The owner of the facility confessed that to turn the bamboo shoots from black to white, he used bleach. Then he continued to soak the bamboo shoots in yellow powder to color them. The authorities suspect that the yellow powder is a synthetic pigment used in industry or a yellow substance.

At Ms. Pham Thi Trang's processing facility, at the scene, 3 bags of yellow powder were seized by the authorities, suspected to be yellow amber. However, the owner of the facility confessed that it was just turmeric used to marinate bamboo shoots to make them yellow, priced at only 20,000 VND/kg at Vinh market? It is worth mentioning that Ms. Trang's fresh bamboo shoot processing area is located right next to her family's bathroom, which is damp and dirty.

Ms. Pham Thi Trang's production facility has about 10 tons of pre-processed bamboo shoots, soaked in water mixed with yellow powder. (Photo: Huu Thanh)

“The department has taken chemical samples and sent them to the Department of Agricultural and Forestry Product Quality Management (Department of Agriculture and Rural Development) to send to Ho Chi Minh City for testing and determining the level of toxicity. It is not yet possible to confirm what chemicals these facilities use. However, it must be affirmed that these chemicals are not used in bamboo shoot processing,” said Lieutenant Colonel Nhi.

According to the authorities, these two establishments have been operating for quite a long time, such as Mr. Le Duc Son's establishment which has been operating for 15 years. These establishments operate very sophisticatedly, with their doors always tightly closed. It took the authorities a long time to monitor and use many professional measures to catch these establishments red-handed using chemicals of unknown origin.

The owner of Son Hanh fresh bamboo shoot processing facility with fresh bamboo shoots "dyed yellow" with chemicals. (Photo: Provided by PC49)

"We are currently investigating the case. But from a legal standpoint, we will handle it strictly according to the law," said Lieutenant Colonel Nhi.

Pham Bang