The food safety watchdog in Ho Chi Minh City says it has yet to find the two types of canned food products containing tainted ‘gutter oil’ that Taiwan believes were imported into Vietnam by a city-based firm, following an inspection on Tuesday.

The municipal food safety agency conducted a joint inspection, along with other relevant units, of Cuu Huong Co Ltd, a trade-service company based in District 11, after the firm was reported to have imported contaminated products from Taiwan’s Wei Chuan Foods Corp.

Cuu Huong has imported canned pickled cucumber with pork, and canned minced meat with chili, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Hanoi notified the Vietnam Food Administration (VFA) on Monday.

The VFA, a Ministry of Health unit tasked with managing food hygiene, safety, and quality, immediately ordered a recall of the products upon the notification.

However, food safety officers could not find any of the allegedly tainted products after three hours of working with company representatives and searching its warehouse. The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office said Cuu Huong had imported 240 boxes of each product.

The canned foods are not on any of Cuu Huong’s receipts or papers of food products imported this year, according to officers.

‘Gutter oil’ is illicit cooking oil which has been recycled from waste oil collected from sources such as restaurant fryers, sewer drains, grease traps, and slaughterhouse waste.

More than 1,200 manufacturers in Taiwan used the 782 tons of ‘gutter oil’ processed by Chang Guann Co in their products, 14 food items of which have reportedly been shipped to 12 countries and territories, including Vietnam.

Nguyen Thi Huynh Mai, deputy head of the Ho Chi Minh City food safety agency, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper after the inspection that Cuu Huong Co has presented 75 quality certificates for all of the products it is currently trading.

The food importer also asserted that it did not distribute the reportedly contaminated products, she added.

“We will continue collaborating with the customs and market surveillance agencies for further verification to determine if the products really exist in the city,” Mai said.

Nguyen Thanh Phong, deputy head of the VFA, also said the two canned products are not on the list of imported foods that have declared quality standards since the beginning of this year.

The VFA has called on the General Department of Vietnam Customs and Taiwan’s Food and Drug Administration to verify if the products had entered Vietnam, Phong added.

“If the products are found, we will request the importer to recall and destroy them,” he said.

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