Health inspectors in Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday checked four shops that sell pearl milk tea following China news reports that the Chinese tapioca balls used in the tea are made with polymers.

Samples of the balls and the ball powder have been taken for testing.

Hanoi health inspectors also on Tuesday took random samples at wholesale markets and milk tea shops around the city, with the results expected to be announced this weekend, Sai Gon Tiep Thi newspaper reported.

If the tests find tapioca at those shops is made from poisonous polymers, Hanoi health inspectors would check all milk tea shops in the city, said Nguyen Viet Cuong, chief inspector of Hanoi Health Department.

Professor Tran Vinh Dieu of the Polymer Research Center at Hanoi Polytechnic University said officials have to trace the origin of polymer, if any, in the tapioca balls, because “not all polymers are poisonous.”

“Some kinds of polymers are not harmful and some are soluble at boiling point. They are just added to make the product soft and crispy.

“Yet other kinds can clot in the stomach.”

An online report on the Chinese Renmin Wang site recently warned that tapioca balls used in milk tea in China contain polymers, chlorides and sodium sulfate that are harmful to health.

Cuong said people in Vietnam shouldn’t panic as the information is only about the balls in China..

On Wednesday inspectors suspended Long Phu Company in HCMC’s Tan Phu District that produces the tapioca pearls, because it didn’t meet cooking safety standards and used bleach as an ingredient.

Favorite drink

Milk tea shops are popular haunts of city teenagers. The drink, known popularly as “pearl milk tea,” has become fashionable for junior high and high school students, even college students.

No official estimates have been made about the number of pearl tea cafes in HCMC but an unidentified source at the city Health Department said there are several thousand, ranging from well-known chains like Alo or Feeling Tea to sidewalk stalls, Lao Dong newspaper said Wednesday.

Prices range from VND4,000 a glass to VND20,000 (US$0.2-1.2).

One customer said, “The pearls look beautiful and milk tea shops are decorated in young styles.”

Meanwhile, eighth-grader Nguyen Khanh Linh in Hanoi likes the different flavors.

Dozens of milk tea shops have been set up in front of the Industry University in Go Vap District, HCMC, some of the same owner, while there are five milk tea shops in a 30 meters section of Nguyen Van Cu Street outside the University of Natural Sciences.

“The drink is great and nutritious,” Lao Dong cited a university sophomore named Thinh as saying.

Many milk tea shop owners buy the ingredients at Binh Tay wholesale market, where tapioca balls are imported mostly from China, some from Taiwan, and sold at VND15,000- 45,000 ($0.9-2.6) a kilo.

They are labeled with a few Chinese words and no Vietnamese.

“I guarantee the balls won’t go off, as long as they are kept dry,” said a seller at the market. “You just need to boil them for 20 minutes and they will get bigger, soft and sweet-smelling.”

The seller sends tons of tapioca balls to Mekong Delta provinces every day.

A kilo of those balls can be used for 40 glasses of milk tea, said an employee at a milk tea shop in HCMC.

Source: Agencies