A major Vietnamese newspaper has had to apologize to its readers for a series of articles now proven to spread false public concern on the safety of fish sauce.

Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper published five fish sauce-related articles in a row between October 10 and 17, which are said to have duped readers into believing that the fish sauce they consume almost every day may be unsafe.

The articles include Water + Chemicals = Industrially made fish sauce; How to send Vietnamese fish sauce to the world market; Beware of arsenic content in fish sauce; What are the standards for Vietnamese fish sauce?; and The loopholes of the law on food additives.

The timing of their publication coincided with the release of a survey by the Vietnam Standards and Consumers Association (Vinastas), which claimed that most fish sauce in Vietnam contained an excessive amount of arsenic.

The Vinastas survey has been widely criticized for deliberately refusing to make clear the difference between organic and inorganic arsenic, resulting in false fears amongst the public that the condiment is unsafe for use.

Arsenic exists in both organic and inorganic forms, but only the latter is toxic. The arsenic in fish sauce is organic, and Vietnam’s food watchdog does not set any content limit for organic arsenic in fish sauce.

Vinastas is alleged to have ‘special motivation’ to conduct the survey and release the misleading results.

A screenshot of the apology article on Thanh Nien website

With the Thanh Nien news stories and the Vinastas survey results creating fear among local consumers, the Ministry of Health on Saturday issued an official statement, asserting that all of the fish sauce samples tested by the association were safe for use.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has requested an investigation into the dissemination of misleading information about fish sauce and to have those responsible penalized.

In an article published on its website on Sunday, Thanh Nien said that it had to remove the five articles because “their content is different from the conclusions of the Ministry of Health” and because “[the stories] have created negative public feedback.”

The newspaper then said that it had published the series of fish sauce articles in order “to give a voice to the food safety debate”.

The daily said its editorial board “takes responsibility for the errors” and appealed for readers’ sympathy in the matter.

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