The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will start to regularly check imported eggs sold in the local market.

Inspectors check imported eggs sold at markets in Ha Noi. Samples will be checked to determine whether they have been bleached.

White home-bred eggs are often considered more nutritious than those bred by large farms.

“We will make sure that products without clear origins or animal quarantine certificates will be seized and destroyed to assure consumers’ health,” Cuong said.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Animal Health Department deputy director Hoang Van Nam said yesterday that the department would conduct a test to find out how toxic chemicals affect the quality of eggs.

“The results will be announced to avoid false reports that could harm farmers,” Nam said.

The ministry’s Livestock Breeding Department deputy director Nguyen Thanh Son affirmed that no eggs containing bleach have been found recently.

The final conclusion has yet been released, but the reports have serious effects on authentic enterprises and household businesses.

Nguyen Ngoc Tu, an egg farmer in Kim Son commune, Gia Lam district, said he failed to sell 5,000 home-bred eggs and was now facing the risk of bankruptcy.

“It takes me VND840,000 (US$47) per day to feed the flock of 700 chickens. Nobody wants to buy these eggs although they have seen my flock,” Tu said.

Tu said he could earn a profit of VND160,000 ($8.8) if 500 eggs were sold, but the bird flu, which hit him twice this year and now the press stories, had made him penniless.

“The number of eggs sold each day remarkably reduced despite I’ve done this job for years. I really need the final conclusion to get back to my business,” said a seller at Nguyen Cao Street.

According to the National Institute of Food Safety Testing deputy head Le Thi Hong Hao, there are many kinds of bleach, such as hypoclorid, acids or potassium permanganate.

These chemicals can soak in eggs and cause allergy and poison to human.

However, Dr Nguyen Van Khai, who was well-known for his farming production methods, said the bleach was hypoclorid, a chemical usually used for cleaning eggs’ shells. His recent study shows that chickens hatch as usual after eggs are soak within three minutes.

Khai said the chemical could hardly do any harm for consumers.

Nguyen Mai Lan, resident in Nghi Tam street, said she’d rather stop eating eggs for a while to protect her family’s health till knowing exactly what kind of chemicals and how harmful they are.

Head of the Ha Noi Market Watch Department Trinh Van Ngoc said it was difficult to distinguish whether they were from inside the country or imported, as once they were at the market, it would be hard to tell.

“We will co-operate with health and animal health officers during the inspection, so bleached eggs will be found in an easier way,” Ngoc said.

The Central Animal Health Medicine Testing Centre vice head To Long Thanh said local authorities should co-operate with relevant authorities to regularly check eggs and seize suspected products.

Thanh also suggested that consumers buy products with clear origins or from certain shops that have registered for certificates to assure its safety.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News