According to the Ho Chi Minh City Market Management Sub-Department, the situation of smuggled goods, goods of unknown origin, especially food, is still complicated, affecting public health, reducing market confidence and creating an unhealthy competitive environment. Common violations are trading in "three-no" goods (without origin, without invoices, without labels).
Goods are often produced and consumed in small quantities, hidden in boarding houses, houses or rented cold storages, making inspection and supervision work difficult. This is a serious issue, requiring long-term involvement of all levels, sectors, functional forces and the whole society.
Mr. Nguyen Quang Huy - Deputy Head of the Ho Chi Minh City Market Management Sub-Department said that the market management force regularly coordinates with the Department of Food Safety and related units to inspect and handle acts of smuggling and trade fraud, especially for food items.
He also noted that during peak periods such as Lunar New Year, the situation of trading in food of unknown origin on social networks and e-commerce platforms tends to increase, with increasingly sophisticated tricks.
Therefore, Mr. Huy called on people to raise their vigilance, become "wise consumers", choose products of clear origin and only buy goods at reputable addresses.
Recently, the Market Management Professional Department - Department of Domestic Market Management and Development in coordination with Tan Phu Ward Police inspected a storage and business point in the area.
At the time of inspection, the team discovered a warehouse containing 3,230 cartons of P.R beer, packaged according to standards 330 ml/can, 24 cans/carton. All goods were labeled in foreign languages, without sub-labels in Vietnamese, and did not show information about the origin of the goods.
Production date and expiration date printed on the packaging are unclear. The product is labeled with a listed price of 215,000 VND/barrel, the total value of goods according to the listed price is up to 694,450,000 VND.
According to functional agencies, because the goods label does not have a sub-label in Vietnamese according to regulations, and does not show information about the importing unit, there is no basis to accurately determine the legal owner of the shipment.
Based on Clause 20, Article 2 of the 2010 Food Safety Law, the inspection team unanimously determined that the above beer was food. According to Clause 13, Article 3 of Decree 98/2020, the entire shipment was identified as goods of unknown origin due to not having sufficient legal grounds to prove legal origin when circulating on the market.
The inspection team made a record, temporarily seized all violating goods, and sealed the exhibits to serve the verification and handling according to regulations.
Market Management Team No. 9 also coordinated with representatives of Hiep Binh Ward People's Committee to conduct a surprise inspection of a food business household. Through initial inspection, the team discovered and seized 17,461 kg of beef intestines, 1,320 kg of beef without invoices, documents, no product quality declaration dossiers, unclear origin, with a total value of violating goods of more than 749 million VND. The inspection team made a record and temporarily seized all violating goods for handling according to legal regulations.
