6 tons of additives of unknown origin at a snack production facility

On October 17, the Economic Security Department of Hanoi City Police said that it had coordinated with Market Management Team No. 13 to discover and seize 6 tons of additives used to produce chips of unknown origin.

Accordingly, the Hanoi People's Committee also decided to fine SASA Hanoi Company Limited, located in Son Dong Commune, Hoai Duc District, Hanoi, VND 180 million for using additives, flavorings, and colorants of foreign origin that have not been quality tested.

At the time of inspection, at the company's production and business workshop, the Director was studying abroad in China and authorized Ms. Dang Thi Thu Huong, Deputy Director in charge. The inspection team discovered the following types of Snack 3K branded snacks: As You Wish Stick; Magic Chopsticks; Delicious Nuts; Crispy Potato Chips; Spicy Beef Flavor; Shredded Noodles; Magic Cakes with a total quantity of 1,383 boxes.

Among these snacks were 2 boxes of Magic Cakes. The company could not present a certificate of compliance with food safety regulations and invoices, origins, and production materials. The inspection team determined that SASA Company also had another warehouse about 50m from the company headquarters to store raw materials and food additives for production.

Therefore, the interdisciplinary inspection team continued to discover that the company was storing a number of goods that were raw materials and food additives, including 2kg of seaweed; 70 packages of mineral powder to remove mold; 130kg of seasoning powder; 50kg of colorants; 1,820kg of sweeteners; 250kg of moisture-proofing agents; 200kg of flavorings; 400kg of chicken flavoring; and 4,100kg of beef flavoring.

The company could not present invoices or documents proving the origin and confirmation of compliance with food safety regulations for all of these goods.

Through appraisal, it was determined that all of the above raw materials originated from China and were worth more than 900 million VND. When she bought enough quantity, Ms. Huong hired a truck to transport the goods to the warehouse for storage, to use for trial production of magic cakes and to sell to other businesses when needed.

Seized evidence (photo: Contributor).

This is not the first time SASA Hanoi Co., Ltd. has been found guilty of food safety violations. Previously, in 2012, the company was fined over VND27 million for using unauthorized additives. In 2013, the company continued to pay a fine of over VND26 million for not having a certificate of compliance with food safety regulations and a number of other violations.

In 2014, the company was fined VND6 million for not complying with regulations on food safety knowledge for workers. The company hired 8 Chinese people to serve production, paying monthly salaries of VND11 million/person, with work permits.

According to cand