With 2,000 VND, students at many schools across the country can buy all kinds of eye-catching snacks and candies with many flavors from coffee, fruit to shrimp, beef... Tien Phong reporters have infiltrated the production "factory" and witnessed the production process of all kinds of snacks that are surrounding the school gates.

Roleplaying as a potato chip maker

La Phu traditional craft village (Hoai Duc, Hanoi) is known as the capital of counterfeit and fake goods. This is also the place where there are dozens of potato chip factories, selling tons of potato chips to the market every day.

When there is a shortage of workers, the potato chip factory owner will go to the "labor market" in Tay Mo (Tu Liem, Hanoi) to find people.

After many days at Tay Mo labor market, Tien Phong reporter was hired as a worker by the owner of TL snack production facility.

TL factory is hidden in Chua Tong hamlet (La Phu commune). From the alley entrance, the aroma of snacks wafts out, but all four doors are locked.

Stopping the car in front of a factory surrounded by green corrugated iron, the owner opened the door to let us in, then quickly closed it. The factory (about 20m wide, about 50m long) is divided into two separate areas.

Raw material mixing area for potato chip production

The outside half contains finished and packaged chips. Along the entrance, hundreds of cans of oil for frying chips are lined up. The inside half of the factory contains machinery and raw materials (flour, sugar, salt, flavorings).

To produce the finished product, the snack making “line” includes 4 steps: mixing and pouring ingredients (flour, spices, food coloring) into the snack making machine; scooping snacks into the fryer; seasoning and packaging.

The mixing stage is separate, separated from the outside by a high corrugated iron sheet. On the black, sticky cement floor, flour, food coloring, spices, and cooking oil are scattered.

Next to it is the toilet and bathroom. Every time they go to the toilet, with the same pair of slippers, the workers walk on the dirty factory floor straight into the toilet and then come out carelessly stepping on the metal sheet containing the snacks.

To avoid leaking the production “secret” and the flour mixing stage, the kiln owner only gave instructions to trusted people. New workers like me were assigned to the packaging stage. After nearly half a month of working, I was assigned to assist the workers in mixing the ingredients.

See the processing technology

Ms. Hai, the dough mixer, instructed me on the recipe for making Crispy Potato Snacks: “Pour 1 bag of flour (25kg), 1 packet of food coloring, 1 cup of sugar, salt and water (to make up 3kg), add 1 cup of cooking oil and mix well into the dough mixer.

Then, the flour pot is put into the potato chip popping machine. The popped potato chips are poured onto the factory floor outside, for people to collect and put into the fryer.

Barefooted and barehanded, sweaty workers carelessly carry tubs of chips into the fryer. Photo: PV.

"At the raw material mixing area, the cement floor is black and sticky with flour, food coloring, spices, and cooking oil. Next to it is the restroom and bathroom. Every time I go to the restroom, I go from the restroom with a pair of worker slippers and then step on the corrugated iron sheet containing the snacks."

Next to the mixer is a small plastic bowl containing food coloring packets, bags of sugar, salt, and a bucket of water.

When I asked about the food coloring packet, Ms. Hai shook her head and said she didn't know. The factory owner instructed and then the staff followed the instructions. The staff didn't know what the substance was because there was no label or name.

According to Ms. Hai, depending on the type of snack, the factory owner will guide the amount of ingredients to mix. “This step helps the flour mix well with the food coloring, sugar, and salt. The spices will be mixed after frying,” Ms. Hai added.

The popped chips were dumped on the factory floor. A worker named Hanh scooped each pot into the black oil furnace and fried hundreds of chips.

The oil furnace was blazing hot, Ms. Hanh was sweating profusely, she walked barefoot into the middle of the potato chip storage floor, scooped each pot up the steps and poured it into the oil furnace. Then, using a small rake, she stirred the potato chips evenly for about 1 minute and poured them into the dryer.

Squeezed dry of cooking oil, the chips are then put into the spice mixer. The spice mixer has a similar structure to a concrete mixer.

Pouring the pot of chips into the dirty, black machine, Ms. Thuy added 1 spoon of yellow food coloring taken from a spice bag printed with Chinese characters, without a Vietnamese label.

After mixing the spices, Ms. Thuy used an iron bar to push the barrel upside down to pour the chips into large baskets and onto a floor about 2 square meters wide.

The potato chip packaging process is undertaken by Ms. Hoa. Using a plastic shovel, Ms. Hoa scoops up 15 kg of potato chips in each plastic bag and places them on the tiled floor.

Then, release the only stamp, tie it tightly, and stack it for shipping to the agents. The product quality assurance stamp lists the ingredients: Potato starch, wheat flour, refined sugar, chili salt, cooking oil, and MSG.

The label clearly states “no color, no preservatives.” This label ignores the use of Chinese colorants and flavorings.

To verify the unlabeled food coloring, the name that TL snack factory is using in snack production. Tien Phong reporter brought the food coloring package to the National Institute for Food Safety and Hygiene for testing.

According to test results, this is the artificial dye Tartazine (symbol E102). In food, E102 is only used in permitted amounts (maximum 7.5mg/kg body weight per day).

If consumed in excess of the allowable amount, it can cause cancer, genotoxicity, neurotoxicity - causing hyperactivity in children.

However, the label of the finished snack products of TL factory ignores the use of this colorant and clearly states "no color, no preservatives".

Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Duy Thinh (Institute of Biotechnology and Food, Hanoi University of Science and Technology) assessed that the fact that TL snack factory did not list the colorant E102 is fraud, deceiving consumers.

“E102 can be used but only within the permitted content, and it must be clearly stated on the packaging so that consumers know. With fraudulent establishments that ignore the use of E102, the authorities need to step in to handle it,” said Mr. Thinh.

According to Vietnam.net