Be careful with floating fruit juice

With the hot weather, the temperature has reached nearly 40 degrees Celsius in the past few days, a lemon will spoil after a few days, but some types of smoothies and pre-packaged fruit juices are still advertised as “fresh” all year round. From kiwi, passion fruit to strawberry juice, tamarind juice… all kinds of eye-catching green and red colors are sold everywhere on Hang Buom Street or Dong Xuan Market (Hanoi).

Passion fruit cup mixed by PV from essential oil bought on Hang Buom street. Photo: H.Nguyen

Cheap, expensive and... floating

On the morning of May 28, PV of Family and Society Newspaper was present at Hang Buom Street, a place considered the “juice paradise” of the capital. The shops displayed a series of eye-catching bottles and jars of refined drinks. Some types had labels, but most of the refined drinks were contained in large and small plastic boxes or cans, in a variety of colors such as white, blue, yellow, etc. The outside of the boxes had the product name written in handwriting.

A shop owner said that there are usually two types of fruit juice here: syrup and smoothie. Syrup is the type that only takes the processed juice. Smoothies are still the same fruit but are pressed with the whole “particles” like fresh fruit, and are pre-bottled. “You can have any flavor you want. Even the coffee is refined to the point of being like coffee brewed with a filter,” the shop owner waved his hand. The selling price of each of these products depends on whether it is domestic or foreign in origin. For example, a cheap bottle of passion fruit smoothie costs 70,000 VND/1 liter bottle, while the expensive one is 115,000 VND/1 liter bottle. A cheap bottle of kiwi smoothie costs 95,000 VND/1 liter bottle, while the expensive one is only 110,000 VND/1 liter bottle. The cheap one here is said by the seller to be domestically produced, while the expensive one is imported.

At this store, we saw some small white boxes containing refined drinks displayed on shelves, without labels, just handwritten product names and no origin. Some other products had labels, but they were all in foreign languages, not in Vietnamese, so it was difficult to see the ingredients and there were no instructions for use. All of these were used according to the seller's rough instructions: "This bottle has added sugar and ice, and can make 10 cups. As for this bottle, if you just add it for eye-catching color, you can make more. If you add it to tea or smoothies in moderate amounts, each bottle can make dozens of cups. How can I say it because it depends on each person's taste. When you're done mixing, just taste it to see if it's to your liking."

We reached up to the shelf and took down a bottle of passion fruit smoothie. Normally, if you want to keep this fruit, you have to put it in the refrigerator. If you scoop out the pulp and mix it with water, you have to keep it in the refrigerator and only drink it during the day. However, here, these bottles still have the “flesh” of the fruit intact but have an expiration date of up to… 10 months. Some smoothie bottles were introduced by the shop owner as: “This type is from Saigon, very delicious. Buy a lot, I will give you a discount. Don’t worry, if the bottle cap is still intact and unopened, it will last for a whole year without spoiling” (?).

Unforeseeable danger

Not only Hang Buom Street, at Dong Xuan Market, food for mixing drinks (mainly for summer) is also sold. Some more "subtle" shops hide the goods in the house, displaying only a small bottle of each type outside. When customers need it, the seller will go inside to get more. Although some boxes are handwritten on the outside as imported goods, because there are no labels, it is impossible to check the specific quality. Some types of goods are advertised as imported but do not have Vietnamese subtitles, making it difficult for buyers to know what to look for.

Previously, the Vietnam Institute of Functional Foods randomly took samples of some types of street drinks in Hanoi such as: lemon tea, Chinese clematis, iced tea... Test results showed: Street drinks are potentially harmful to health. Specifically, 3/9 samples had aerobic bacteria exceeding the allowable level. All 9 samples had B. cereus bacteria and were especially high in the dried Chinese clematis sample. B. cereus is an important indicator for assessing the risk of bacterial infection and food poisoning in countries. This type of bacteria is present everywhere in the environment and causes disease by producing toxins. 8/9 samples exceeded the allowable level of E.Coli bacteria - a type of bacteria in feces that can cause acute poisoning, increasing the risk of diarrhea. 4/9 samples exceeded the allowable level of yeast and mold. Molds produce mycotoxins and aflatoxin, causing acute and chronic poisoning, increasing the risk of cancer. 3/9 samples have Pb, Hg, Cd exceeding the permissible level.

According to Prof. Dr. Tran Hong Con (Faculty of Chemistry - University of Natural Sciences, Vietnam National University, Hanoi), in the food technology industry, preservatives, anti-mold and anti-fungal agents are still used by many manufacturers. However, the important thing is whether they use them correctly? Are they really for the food group? If people use industrial chemicals for preservation, it is extremely harmful, affecting the health of users.

Professor Tran Hong Con said: “If the chemicals used for preservation are not completely free of impurities, or if the wrong type is used, it is extremely harmful. Especially with these floating drinks, the quality cannot be controlled.”

According to giadinh.net