Recorded at the Southern wholesale market (Hanoi), frozen pork and chicken are being consumed in large quantities. Many small traders admit that goods do not have invoices, documents and are of unknown origin, but are still brought into eateries and collective kitchens every day.
In the role of someone who needs to import a large quantity of frozen pork for workers' kitchens, reporters came to a meat business counter at the Southern wholesale market. Here, the store owner offered frozen pork belly at a price of about 9,000 VND/kg.
However, when asked about the red invoice and documents proving the origin, the seller affirmed that he could not issue an invoice because of the "expensive fee" and the goods were imported through many intermediaries.
I also sell pork here to stores and kitchens, but I cannot issue invoices. Goods are delivered to the market through many intermediaries, so the origin is also unknown. If you take large quantities, from the first quintal or more, I still have goods" - the seller said.
Continuing the survey at a store specializing in selling frozen chicken meat, reporters noted that the main items are pre-cut chicken thighs and pre-cut chicken thighs. Many boxes of meat are displayed right in hot weather, flowing water, while staff are still continuously preliminary processing to deliver to customers.
The store owner said that the price of frozen chicken thighs is about 70,000 VND/kg. "This chicken I am slicing to ship to customers. This goods is sent to chicken pho restaurants and collective kitchens a lot. Some places take 20-30kg of pre-sliced goods every day. This goods, my family cannot issue red invoices, everyone here sells like that" - the seller shared.
Reality shows that pork and chicken are popular consumption items in collective kitchens and popular eateries. However, the circulation of large quantities of food of unknown origin, without invoices and documents, poses many risks to food safety, epidemics as well as affecting consumer rights.
According to Dr. Nguyen Xuan Duong - Chairman of the Vietnam Livestock Association, the amount of frozen meat, imported meat and livestock products imported into Vietnam is increasing very rapidly in recent years.
He said that the average increase in imported food is about 15 - 20% per year, while domestic livestock production only increases by about 3 - 4%. This creates great pressure on the domestic livestock industry.
For poultry products, in recent years, domestic production has exceeded demand quite a lot. If imported goods are not well controlled, it will greatly affect domestic livestock production.
Also according to Mr. Duong, a more worrying issue is the risk of epidemics and food insecurity when many products circulating on the market cannot prove their origin.
If traders cannot prove the clear origin, the risk of smuggled goods and unofficial imports is very high. This can lead to the risk of epidemics and directly affect consumer rights. People do not have the opportunity to choose quality food, and domestic farmers lose the opportunity to compete fairly" - Mr. Duong said.
Faced with the above situation, Mr. Duong said that functional agencies need to strengthen inspection and supervision of frozen food business activities at wholesale markets, tighten traceability and strictly handle cases of trading in goods of unknown origin to protect consumer health and the domestic livestock market.
In the context of increasing demand for cheap food, the influx of frozen meat of unknown origin into wholesale markets, eateries and collective kitchens is raising many concerns about food safety. If the control, traceability and strict handling of violations are not tightened soon, the risk of affecting consumer health, the domestic livestock environment and the risk of disease outbreaks will continue.
