There needs to be a solution to prevent the widespread sale of foods of unknown origin on the market.

Popcorn bags without any information on the packaging are a favorite snack of young people - Photo: TN

After school, D.TT, a student at Dong Ha High School, and his friends went to a convenience store near the school to “recharge their batteries”. This place sells a variety of instant foods, has a kitchen for customers to cook and mix their own dishes, so it is chosen by many young people. When arriving, T. quickly bought a pack of instant noodles, a sausage and a can of carbonated water, paid the bill first and then went to the kitchen to boil water. The amount he had to pay for all those food and drinks was nearly 50,000 VND.

When asked about the brand of noodles she bought, T. honestly pointed to the shelf and said: “I don’t know what this noodle is called because the packaging is all in Chinese. But every time I come here, I often eat this noodle and find it quite delicious. The food here is not cheap, but I find it convenient because I can buy it and prepare it right there.”

As a store with a majority of young customers, most fast food items are sold here, from instant noodles, sausages, chicken feet to milk, carbonated drinks, jams... It is worth noting that most of the foods do not have a clear origin, or if they do, they are completely in Chinese, Korean, Thai... without any Vietnamese sub-labels.

Posing as a customer, the reporter visited a store with many students. Here, many "unique" and eye-catching foods were also sold. The reporter chose to buy a package of popcorn in a simple paper bag, with absolutely no information but priced at 39,000 VND/250 gram bag. When asked about the origin and expiration date, the sales staff here stammered: "This type of popcorn is imported daily by the store, so there is no fear of the goods going stale. The goods only go bad when opened and the popcorn is no longer crispy."

“You want to know about the expiration date of the product,” the reporter asked. At this time, the store owner stood up to explain: “Our store ordered someone to make it, then brought it home to package it ourselves. Popcorn is a hot selling item these days. You can rest assured to use it, the goods are always guaranteed to be fresh.” No one could answer the question about the expiration date of the item, but this food is still sold on the market every day in large quantities. This explanation probably applies not only to the above popcorn package but also to many other foods of unknown origin in the store.

In many different forms, floating food items are still widely sold, at different prices and are popular with young consumers. Controlling these types of food is already difficult, but it is even more difficult now that they can reach more customers through social networking platforms and e-commerce platforms.

For 89,000 VND, NHL, in Cam Lo, received a package of mixed rice paper and sun-dried rice paper wrapped in a simple paper box, each with a name to distinguish between the types of rice paper, the remaining information such as production date, expiration date, contact address... was not available. L. said: "I browsed tiktok and saw that people commented that the quality was good. Moreover, this shop had 32,000 sales, so I decided to "close the order" right away.

With the additional subsidy from the floor, I was able to buy the product at a cheap price.” Perhaps, not only L. but also many other customers have chosen to put their trust in the advertisements of KOLs (influencers on social networks) and sales, instead of paying attention to the information provided by the manufacturer.

The evidence is that food and beverage products with high sales such as: popcorn with 35.8 thousand sales; sun-dried rice paper with nearly 200 thousand sales; rice paper mixed with fried onions with over 450 thousand sales; self-mixed flavor gummy candy with 204 thousand sales... all have very little information about the accompanying product (survey on the tiktok trading floor).

The widespread presence of foods of unknown origin and origin as it is today is becoming an alarming reality. However, in addition to the efforts of functional agencies, departments and branches, preventing this situation requires the participation of consumers themselves.

Food of unknown origin will have difficulty surviving when consumers “turn their backs”. Let’s all become smart consumers by choosing quality food with clear origin and provenance to use. This is how consumers protect their health and help prevent the proliferation of food of unknown origin on the market.

The Japanese

Source: https://baoquangtri.vn/can-co-giai-phap-ngan-chan-tinh-trang-cac-loai-thuc-pham-khong-ro-nguon-goc-ban-tran-lan-tren-thi-truong-192610.htm