An article published on a newswire alleging the use of rat meat in the broth of a common street food in Ho Chi Minh City has gone viral on social networks over the last week.

The newswire enjoyed a sudden boost in page views as hundreds of thousands read and shared its unverified report that claimed the broth of the rice noodle dish hu tieu is made from rat.

The “reporter,” Dai Lam, easily captured readers’ attention with his headline: “The shocking truth about hu tieu street vendors”.

Dai Lam wrote that he was following a police chase when the thief suddenly threw his stolen assets into a pot of hu tieu on the street.

When police attempted to take the goods out of the pot, they were shocked to see rats at the bottom.

The disgusting report was first published on what is now believed to be a fake newswire and immediately shared on Facebook at lightning speed.

Hu tieu vendors are greatly affected, suffering from an instant decrease in customers.

Hu tieu is a popular street food for Vietnamese. The dish is particularly popular with students and low-income earners as prices are reasonable.

Fabricated story

To verify the story and remove the burden from hu tieu vendors, Tuoi Tre sought to check the details stated in the very article one by one.

Tuoi Tre first contacted the police force that the author claimed to have accompanied during their chase before he discovered the shocking truth.

But Nguyen Le Hung, head of the force tasked to prevent and fight against criminals, said no reporters had followed officers recently.

“It is prohibited for officers to be accompanied by journalists when on duty because it is very dangerous,” Hung said.

The police chief added that he had not been briefed regarding any case in which police discovered rats in hu tieu broth following a chase.

All of the police units in charge of the streets mentioned in the story confirmed with Tuoi Tre that the reporter’s claims are false.

The street food vendors asserted with Tuoi Tre that their broth is cooked from pork and pig bones.

“How could we use rats to cook the broth?” they said.

Vendors bemoan

Most of the hu tieu street vendors are immigrants from poverty-stricken localities in central Vietnam. Selling the soup is the only way to help them make ends meet and afford luxuries such as higher education for their children.

Ha Thi Thu, from Quang Ngai Province, said her customers have begun to ask about the broth before ordering.

Thu used to sell up to 50 bowls of hu tieu a day, but sales dropped to only 35 bowls after the rumor spread.

Similarly, Luong Tan Tuc, who also left Quang Ngai for HCMC to sell hu tieu in 1989, said the fabricated story has been hard on his business.

Tuc opened the lid of his broth pot, revealing the pig bones at the bottom to prove there were no rats within.

The broth is cooked from 12kg of bones and 6kg of pork, a custom he has practiced over the last 24 years, Tuc said.

“My three children have grown up on my hu tieu. They eat it every day. How could I make such a disgusting broth as the article claims?” he pressed.