Nghe An: The chemical used to dye fresh bamboo shoots yellow is Yellow O.

(Baonghean.vn) - On the afternoon of April 21, Colonel Tran Huu Hong - Head of the Environmental Police Department (PC49 - Nghe An Provincial Police) stated that the chemical samples used by fresh bamboo shoot processing facilities were identified as Yellow O.

Colonel Hong said that after environmental police discovered and caught bamboo shoot processing facilities using strange chemicals to bleach and dye bamboo shoots yellow, the unit sent samples of the chemicals to the Sub-Department of Agricultural, Forestry and Fisheries Product Quality Management (Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of the province) to be sent to Ho Chi Minh City for testing to determine the toxicity level of these chemicals.

Chemical samples taken from the premises of Ms. Pham Thi Trang and Mr. Le Duc Son have been identified as Yellow O.

Test results showed that the yellow chemical used by bamboo shoot processing facilities was the banned substance Auramine O (also known as yellow dye).

Yellow dye is a synthetic pigment used in industry to dye fabrics, paper, wood, etc., and in construction as a colorant for wall paint. Because yellow dye is toxic and harmful to human health, potentially causing cancer, it should not be used in food processing. After receiving the test results, PC49 is finalizing the dossiers to penalize these establishments according to regulations, Colonel Hong added.

As reported by Nghe An Newspaper, on April 5th, the Environmental Crime Investigation Police Department (Provincial Police) unexpectedly inspected two fresh bamboo shoot processing facilities owned by Mr. Le Duc Son and Ms. Pham Thi Trang, both residing in Block 2, Doi Cung Ward, Vinh City.

At these two facilities, in addition to discovering 25 tons of foul-smelling bamboo shoots that did not meet food safety and hygiene standards, environmental police also found that the two establishments were using white and yellow chemicals to process the bamboo shoots.

Pham Thi Trang's production facility has about 10 tons of pre-processed bamboo shoots, which are soaked in water mixed with a yellow powder.

Reportedly, Mr. Son's fresh bamboo shoot processing facility has been operating for over 15 years; Ms. Trang's facility has been operating for 5 years. On average, these two processing facilities sell about 200kg of fresh bamboo shoots soaked in chemicals to the market each day.

Working with the police, Ms. Pham Thi Trang confessed that the yellow powder used to soak bamboo shoots was purchased from Thao Loc kiosk at Vinh market.

Subsequently, expanding the investigation into the Thao Loc kiosk at Vinh Market, Nghe An environmental police discovered that the kiosk owner was selling nearly 10kg of yellow powder and 12 sacks containing white powder, weighing 500kg in total. The kiosk owner could not produce any documents regarding the origin of these chemicals.

Huy Phong