Squid on the floor at Long Bien Market in Hanoi.

Inspectors in Hanoi on Monday found squid for sale at a wholesale market being processed with a substance banned for use in cooking by Vietnamese health authorities.

The inspection of seafood stalls at Long Bien Market was conducted by a team of officials including Hanoi’s environment police, the Department of Health, the Aquatic Product Agency, and the Agency for Food Hygiene and Safety.

Inspectors caught around 10 workers at two stalls using the chemical to bleach the squid to make it appear fresh when in fact, the product was long past its expiration date.

A total of around 500 kilograms of imported, frozen squid were found at the stalls in packages displaying expiration dates of 2005 or 2006, printed in foreign languages, and without any documents of origin.

The workers said they had taken the frozen squid and put it in water with salt, ice and hydrogen peroxide.

Inspectors also found some machines in operation to process the squid with the chemical. They said some tanks emitted a foul odor and had fly larvae inside.

Nguyen Viet Tien, deputy head of the Hanoi environment police, said they had sent undercover investigators to the site to examine the case months before the raid.

An undercover investigator said the seafood might have been imported from other countries but the sellers hid the origin and sold the squid as if the product was from Hai Phong City, Quang Ninh, Thanh Hoa and Nghe An provinces.

Samples of the seized squid are being sent to laboratories for further tests.

One of its two main tributaries, the Rao Tro River, has dried up almost completely where it runs through Tuyen Hoa District, which is known as the “fire coordinator” in the province.

Resident Nguyen Van Lap says water levels in the Rao Tro River does gets lower every summer. “But it’s getting lower too soon this year. Now you can walk across the river.”

Lap said the river might have no water left if it remains hot and dry for another week.

He added that locals mostly get all their water from the rivers, which are now little different from sand expanses with several puddles, for their daily use.

Reported by Thai Son