When fake and poor quality food is rampant
According to Hanoi City Police, through reconnaissance and grasping the situation in the area, Team 7 (Economic Police Department) discovered signs of violations at a reputable spring roll business establishment in Hoan Kiem ward. When conducting a surprise inspection of Yen Hien spring roll business establishment at No. 5B Nguyen Thien Thuat street, Hoan Kiem ward, Hanoi, functional forces caught the establishment red-handed producing about 3 quintals of spring roll containing borax.
The owner of the production facility declared that he has been using borax since 2022 with the aim of making spring rolls more crispy, extending preservation time, limiting mold and spoilage. Notably, this facility was determined to have consumed about 300 tons of spring rolls containing borax on the market.
Also in the early days of 2026, Market Management Team No. 2, Hanoi Market Management Sub-Department, continuously discovered, inspected and handled 4 violations related to trading in food of unknown origin and smuggled food in Hong Ha ward.
Inspecting a facility in alley 127 Phuc Xa, it was discovered that it was trading 55kg of pork belly of unknown origin. Functional forces continued to inspect a facility at No. 838 Bach Dang street, discovering 24 boxes of bulb seeds (type 850g) of unknown origin.
Previously, Market Management Team No. 10 coordinated with Soc Son Commune Police and Traffic Police Team No. 15 to inspect car 29D-420.11, discovering 26 sacks containing 831kg of frozen chicken feet that had a foul odor, of unknown origin, without invoices and documents.
In particular, Lao Cai Provincial Police in coordination with the Department of Police for Investigation of Crimes of Corruption, Economy, and Smuggling (Ministry of Public Security) and Hanoi City Police have just dismantled a particularly large-scale production and trading line of counterfeit goods such as food, foodstuffs, and food additives, operating nationwide.
Functional forces discovered thousands of fake and poor quality functional food products being produced and packaged at the factory of Medistar Vietnam Co., Ltd. (Quang Minh Industrial Park). The fake items are mainly collagen, vitamins, bone and joint tonics, digestive drugs... to be taken for consumption.
Initial investigation determined that in the period 2012-2025, the subjects sold hundreds of tons of fake functional foods to the market, with revenue of nearly 1,800 billion VND, illegal profits of hundreds of billions of VND and causing tax loss.
No tolerance for fake goods, dirty goods
Dr. Nguyen Trung Nguyen - Director of the Poison Control Center, Bach Mai Hospital - warned that the period before - during - after Tet is the time when the risk of food poisoning increases due to high and difficult-to-control eating needs. The main causes come from unsafe foods (of unknown origin, banned additives, toxic chemicals, street food easily contaminated with bacteria) and from the habit of preserving, storing, and using them incorrectly during parties and gatherings.
He recommended that people choose food of clear origin, check expiration dates, limit street food, preserve it correctly and "eat cooked and drink boiled"; at the same time, functional agencies and businesses need to tighten control.
Deputy Minister of Health Do Xuan Tuyen affirmed: The Ministry of Health's point of view is to strictly handle, without prohibition zones for counterfeit goods; in the past time, it has strengthened the management of functional foods by clearly classifying products, tightening declaration dossiers and regulations on labels and warnings. However, he believes that a unified focal point is needed for food safety management and soon amend Decree 15/2018/ND-CP to strictly control the self-declaration mechanism, complete recall when violating, shift from "safety assurance" to comprehensive quality management, and increase unscheduled inspections.
Regarding legal issues, Dr. Chu Quoc Thinh - Acting Director of the Food Safety Department, Ministry of Health - said that the draft Law on Food Safety (amended) is being developed to "strengthen" the management framework, focusing on 5 groups of policies: Tightening high-risk grassroots levels; clearly decentralizing power from the Central to local levels; controlling processed and imported food according to risk levels; strictly controlling substances that are easily abused; completing the control system from production to circulation and rapid recall mechanism.
The Food Safety Department also requested localities to increase inspection, strictly handle, and propagate so that people only use food of clear origin and proactively develop medical plans to respond to poisoning.
