Suspend the operation of Bao Phuong 2 moon cake production facility

On the afternoon of September 16, at the time of inspection of Bao Phuong 2 facility (located at 201 and 223 Thuy Khue Street, Tay Ho District, Hanoi), the inspection team decided to temporarily suspend the production activities of this facility.

According to Dr. Nguyen Hung Long, Deputy Director of the Department of Food Safety (Ministry of Health), head of the interdisciplinary inspection team, the hygiene conditions of this facility are very poor. Not to mention that at the time of inspection, Bao Phuong 2 facility did not ensure legal procedures, violated food safety regulations, and could not prove the origin of the cake ingredients.

Accordingly, Bao Phuong 2 facility (located at 223 Thuy Khue Street) has about 60 workers, a relatively large production scale but does not ensure food safety regulations. At the time of inspection, the facility did not have a certificate of food safety eligibility and did not have a business registration certificate.

In particular, when checking the source of raw materials such as lard and chicken eggs, the owner of the facility could not present documents proving the origin of the above raw materials.

Not only that, at the time of inspection, the sanitary conditions of the facility did not meet the requirements. The wooden table used to knead the dough for making moon cakes still had a lot of flour stuck to it from previous productions. The bathroom door opened directly to the production area, the floor was damp and moldy; the floor and ceiling were peeling, the windows opened to the street, allowing dust and harmful insects (rats, flies, cockroaches, etc.) to enter the products and ingredients for making cakes. Along with that, the production tools were not hygienic, the facility still used wooden tables to make cakes, bamboo baskets to store ingredients; Bao Phuong 2 facility also did not have a warehouse to store ingredients but mixed them in the production area, some were placed on shelves, some ingredients were placed against the moldy walls.

“The sanitary conditions of the facility are very poor. In addition, the hygiene and safety conditions have not been guaranteed, so the inspection team decided to temporarily suspend production at Bao Phuong 2 facility and at the same time administratively fine this production facility,” said Mr. Long.

In addition, Dr. Nguyen Hung Long assessed that the facility announced two products: moon cakes and baked cakes with mixed fillings, but in reality, they produced moon cakes and moon cakes with many different fillings. The product packaging and labels were also not in accordance with regulations and registration.

Dr. Hoang Duc Hanh, Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Health, Head of the city's interdisciplinary food safety inspection team, said that the suspension of operations will last until Bao Phuong 2 facility overcomes all the above shortcomings, meets food safety requirements, and has a business registration certificate before it can resume operations.

The inspection team took 2 samples of moon cakes and mixed-filling moon cakes and sent them to the National Testing Institute for testing.

It is known that Bao Phuong is a famous traditional moon cake brand in Hanoi. Every year, when the Mid-Autumn Festival comes, the scene of people lining up from early morning to buy Bao Phuong moon cakes to eat on the full moon day of the eighth lunar month is repeated here.

According to dantri.com.vn