Not storing food samples, difficult to protect people poisoned
Many days after the collective poisoning incident when eating banh mi thit cha in Dien Ban ward, Da Nang, causing at least 26 people to be hospitalized, consumers had to pay for hospital fees themselves, and were not supported with lost workdays and health damage due to poisoning.
On June 15, Dien Ban ward received information that 26 patients were hospitalized at Quang Nam Regional General Hospital with symptoms of abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, fever, loose stools, suspected of being related to eating bread in the area. During the investigation, Dien Ban ward recorded that on June 13, the victims bought bread at Thuong bread establishment, Thanh Chiem 1 block, Dien Ban ward, before symptoms appeared. The ingredients recorded in the bread roll included bread, pork, sausage, pate, and spring rolls.
At the time of inspection of the facility on June 15, food and raw materials processed and sold from June 13 had been sold out. The facility also did not store food samples. No food samples, no raw material samples, no stored samples, testing to find the causative agent could not be carried out.
Through inspection, Thuong bread establishment and Nguyen Minh Chau pork sausage supplier were identified as having many violations such as: Not having a certificate of food safety and hygiene eligibility; not storing food samples in accordance with regulations; doing business not in accordance with the scope, area, and location stated in the license.
The two establishments were administratively fined a total of 50.5 million VND. However, because the food, the causative agent and the direct causal relationship with the poisoning incident have not been identified, consumers still lack a basis to request compensation for damages.
According to Lawyer Nguyen Thanh Tan - Tan Nguyen Law Office, Da Nang, the Food Safety Law stipulates that consumers have the right to complain, sue and be compensated for damages caused by using unsafe food; organizations and individuals trading in food are also obliged to compensate when unsafe food caused damage by their business.
However, to investigate compensation responsibility, it is necessary to clarify the actual damage, violations, and the causal relationship between the food used and the poisoning situation. This is the most difficult point in the Dien Ban case, when there are no more food samples, food storage samples, and the pathology results have not identified specific agents.
Repeated lessons from previous poisoning cases
The incident in Dien Ban is not the first time Da Nang has fallen into a difficult situation to conclude the cause of poisoning due to lack of food samples.
In August 2022, the case of 34 Quang Ninh tourists food poisoning in Da Nang also encountered a similar situation. Because samples from meals suspected of causing poisoning were not obtained, functional agencies did not have enough grounds to conclude the specific cause, although they determined that this was a collective poisoning case.
The common point between the 2022 case and the Dien Ban banh mi case in 2026 is that when an incident occurred, violations were detected but the saved sample was no longer there or was not stored in accordance with regulations. This makes the conclusion of the cause prolonged and the responsibility for compensation difficult to determine.
Previously, Da Nang had a humane approach. In 2017, after the case of 17 tourists poisoning after eating at a rice shop on Ho Nghinh street, city leaders visited, apologized, waived hospital fees, hospital accommodation costs and supported 22 million VND for 11 inpatients.
In 2023, the Phuong bread brand in Hoi An also proactively contacted customers to negotiate and support hospital fees after the poisoning of more than 150 people.
Da Nang currently has more than 23,000 establishments producing and trading food, food services and street food. During Tet 2026, functional agencies inspected 1,472 establishments, detecting 83 violating establishments; of which 47 cases were fined more than 317 million VND.
At the launching ceremony of the Action Month for Food Safety 2026, Vice Chairman of Da Nang City People's Committee Nguyen Thi Anh Thi assessed that food safety assurance work in the past time has had positive changes, but violations still occur, especially in the field of food service business and street food - fields directly related to people's daily lives and potentially risky if not strictly controlled.
Leaders of the Da Nang Center for Disease Control admitted that although the Ministry of Health has regulations, for food business establishments with 30 servings or more, it is mandatory to store food samples. But in reality, many establishments do not store samples according to regulations, this is a difficult problem that makes it difficult for functional agencies to trace the cause and protect consumer rights when poisoning occurs.
