Vietnam Rejects False Reports on Food Export Quality to the U.S.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not yet issued any report on harmful food to human health imported from Vietnam since early 2009, the Vietnamese embassy and trade representative to the U.S. announced on Feb. 24. 

The announcement was made after some news articles published this month in the U.S, warning that consumers not to use food imported from Vietnam, quoting what it said was provided by FDA that the food is filthy or poisonous. 

“That information is false,” Cao Tran Quoc Khai, head of economic office in Vietnam embassy to the U.S. said, suspecting that this might have been intentionally forged for bad purposes.

The FDA monthly issues a list of shipments overseas which are refused to be imported into the U.S. in the preceding month.

According to Vietnam’s Trade Representative Office in the U.S., the FDA’s lists in December 2008 and January 2009 identified 38 and 47 unqualified shipments, respectively, from Vietnam, which account for just a few percents of Vietnam’s food exports to the U.S., and represent a low rate compared to other countries.

Under FDA’s regulations, if a manufacturer has five or more different shipments of the same item found not meeting food safety standards when imported to the US in one month, all of its shipments shall be tested.

No Vietnamese manufacturer has so far been listed under these regulations. (VNA, The People)