Many bamboo shoots processors in Ho Chi Minh City use extremely powerful industrial cleaners to improve quality of their products, despite health risks to consumers, readers told Tuoi Tre.
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| Bamboo shoots processed with toxic chemicals at an establishment in District 12, Ho Chi Minh City |
These cleaners are sodium sulfite (Na2SO3) and sodium hyposulfite (Na2S2O3), which are mixed into water in which bamboo shoots will be soaked.
This will make them soft and crisp and maintain their typical yellow color, whether they are pickled or boiled.
Le Thi Hoa, a reader of Go Vap District, said she suffered food poisoning from processed bamboo shouts a month ago. “I ate some pickled bamboo shout I bought from a market. It tasted delicious. But I later had such a painful stomachache that I had to be hospitalized. Doctors said I was poisoned with the food.”
Tinh, a bamboo shoot processor in Tan Thoi Nhat Ward, District 12, Ho Chi Minh City, told Tuoi Tre reporters, “Using these cheap chemicals I can shorten the production process, improve product quality and save tens of millions of dong every month as expenses on charcoal and firewood”. VND20 million roughly equals USD1,000.
At another establishment, Tuoi Tre found a young man mixing 5 table spoons of yellow powder into a wash-basin in which bamboo shoots were being soaked. The owner, Ot, shouted at him, “Do it in another place!” and then turned to us explaining, “It is just saffron powder, not artificial colors. We added the powder to make products yellow, just like using it in braising fish.”
However, we later learned that it was a kind of powder used in industrial painting.
Not far from this establishment was another, where we saw water from a drilled well being pumped directly into hundreds of tanks holding bamboo shoots.
Minh, the establishment’s owner, said, “It is essential to use chemicals to make products better.” She then showed us three bags, each of which she said contained artificial yellow colors, chemical sugar substitutes and whitening powder.
“Food cleansing powder”
Linh, a processor in District 12, said, “Previously, processing bamboo shoots cost a lot of time. Presently, by using chemicals, including a whitening substance, we can both process them much faster and make them more attractive and delicious to consumers.”
Meanwhile, Tinh’s establishment, which provides the market with nearly 100 tons processed bamboo shoots per month, praised the “magic” of the whitening powder.
He said, “Since we used it, we have no longer suffered losses from blackened bamboo shoots. In addition, chemical sugar substitute and artificial colors will make our products sweet, soft and crisp.
“With these chemicals, we can deliver products to clients within a few days, not as long as a few months as previously,” Tinh said.
Before putting processed bamboo shoots on sale, pickled bamboo shoots are taken out of the soaking solution and washed with water mixed with whitening powder, Tinh told us, calling this step “white-bathing”.
“The more this powder is added, the whiter and the crisper our products are.”
Following Tinh’s instructions, we came to Kim Bien Market in District 5 and found the chemical was sold for VND25,000 (USD1.2) per kg for grade 1 and VND20,000 for grade 2.
“This is imported from China and is simply called ‘food cleansing powder’. No one here knows its exact name,” said Lanh, the owner of a stall trading in whitening powder at the market.
We later brought the whitening powder and the yellow powder provided by Tinh to the Ho Chi Minh City Chemical Technology Institute for analysis.
On April 9, the Institute’s analysis results identified the whitening powder to be sodium sulfite (Na2SO3) and sodium hyposulfite (Na2S2O3), the two extremely powerful industrial cleaners that are used for developing photos, whitening fabrics, processing rubber latex and taming cattle skins.
Meanwhile, Tinh’s yellow powder was found containing heavy metal Cadmium (Cd) at a concentration of 0.625mg/kg.
According to Tuoi Tre’s investigation, sodium hyposulfite is also abused as a preservative for vegetable and fruits, frozen fried potato chips, condensed pineapple juice, frozen shrimps, and some other items.
Some steps for bleaching bamboo shoots at an establishment in Tan Thoi Nhat Ward, District 12, Ho Chi Minh City
