A lady selecting milk at the Co-op Mart Supermarket in District 1.

The health ministry has warned companies they could lose their business license and face stringent action.

Several dairy firms have kept silent about products that had tested positive for melamine contamination, inspectors said at a meeting Saturday, drawing a sharp warning from the Ministry of Health.

Deputy Minister of Health Cao Minh Quang said the ministry would revoke the licenses and take stringent action against dairy firms that tried to cover up melamine-contamination test results.

He asked milk importers to send the samples of their products to 22 standard labs in the nation to ascertain if they had been contaminated with melamine.

Melamine, a chemical compound used in the manufacture of plastic, makes milk appear rich in protein. No national or international authority has approved the use of melamine for human consumption.

The labs are also required to report test results to the Ministry of Health at the earliest, Quang said at a meeting of various inspection agencies in Ho Chi Minh City Saturday.

The meeting, held in the context of the tainted milk scandal deepening in China and intensified nationwide inspection in Vietnam, brought together the Ministry of Health’s inspection team in HCMC, the city health watchdog, and other agencies concerned.

After sending their products for examination, several dairy firms had kept silent about test results proving their products were contaminated with melamine, inspectors said at the meeting.

Deputy Minister Quang warned the ministry would brook no cover-up in this regard. He warned that if any surprise or random inspection unearthed this wrongdoing, the ministry would withdraw the licenses of violating businesses and consider further penalties against them.

Police to swing into action

The Ministry of Health would recommend that the central police force launch an investigation into the dubious milk distribution activities of two dairy companies (whose names have not been released), said Tran Quang Trung, chief of the health ministry’s inspection department.

The two companies said they had imported a large amount of milk from China and would re-export the consignment to other countries. However they did not reveal the destinations, Trung said.

An inspection conducted by the Hanoi Health Department Saturday found at least 500 stores in Ha Dong market selling candies and cookies without any usage-guidance labels in Vietnamese.

The sellers also failed to present documents proving the origins of their products. Several samples of candy and cookies were seized for further analysis, inspectors said.

Melamine concentration limit to be announced soon

Deputy Minister Quang also said at the meeting that the ministry was planning to make public the permissible concentration of melamine in dairy products next week.

The Ministry of Health’s Food Administration last Thursday officially announced a list of 18 products found contaminated with melamine.

While Vietnam has no regulation about the concentration level at which melamine would be poisonous for consumption, any dairy product containing the substance would be subject to recall, Quang said.

So far multi-disciplinary inspection teams have recalled around 1,000 tons of melamine-contaminated dairy products nationwide with 300 tons earmarked for destruction.

Three companies told to destroy their melamine-tainted products were Hanoimilk in the capital city, and Kim An and A Chau in HCMC.

The ministry would ensure the process of recalling and destroying melamine-contaminated products are carried out properly, Quang said.

The Ministry of Education and Training issued a dispatch Saturday instructing schools nationwide to ensure that no identified melamine-contaminated dairy products are used, and to rush to the hospital any student suspected of contracting melamine-related problems.

Vinamilk, the top Vietnamese dairy firm, Saturday signed a commitment that it would keep a close eye on the materials it imports and would ensure that its products met all safety standards.

Reported by Thanh Tung - Thuy Anh