The recent case of the Hanoi Market Monitoring Authority's wrongful claim that Vietfoods’ sausage products were unsafe, causing the company big losses, has made the headlines in days.
In April this year, the authority seized a shipment of 2.2 tonnes of Vietfoods sausages on suspicion that Sodium Nitrate 251 was used in the sausages. They then issued administrative fine based on this.
Vietfoods sausage products seized by Hanoi Market Monitoring Authority
However, Vietfoods provided a document issued on May 23 by the Ministry of Health’s Food Safety Association that showed Sodium Nitrate 251 was not on the list of banned substances for food and the content level used by Vietfoods were safe.
After that, Hanoi Market Monitoring Authority had to return the seized sausages to Vietfoods, but most of them had passed their expiry date. Vietfoods had to halt its operations due to the authority's conclusion, forcing it to make 100 workers redundant.
The Hanoi Market Monitoring Authority's wrong sausages safety claim caused Vietfoods losses running into tens of billions of VND, but to date, the authority has failed to provide compensation or even apologised.
Earlier, the environmental police force at Hai Duong Province seized more than two tonnes of fresh octopuses from a truck when it was running from Noi Bai Airport in Hanoi to Quang Ninh Province. The seizure was illegal and met strong opposition from the owners. Finally, the police had to pay nearly VND1 billion ($45,000) in compensation as the entire shipment was spoiled.
By late 2015, a driver named Luong Hoang My in Kien Giang province sued a local police officer for stopping and then seizing his truck which was carrying three tonnes of the fresh fish, causing him great losses, despite finding no violations.
These cases have raised serious concerns among businesses and contradicted the prime minister’s claims that the government wanted to make it easier to do business in the country.
If these activities have personal motives, the government need to take urgent measures to deal with this to ensure trust for the business community.
