Vietnam’s food safety authorities have issued a nationwide public health warning following a local police bust of a large counterfeit oil operation secretly selling animal-feed oil as cooking oil to restaurants, factories and food producers across the country.
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Police in Hung Yen province raided the Nhat Minh Food Production and Import-Export Company on Tuesday. It was allegedly repackaging imported animal feed-grade vegetable oil under the Ofood brand and selling it as cooking oil, the VnExpress newspaper reported.
“This fake cooking oil threatens public health,” an official with Vietnam’s Department of Food Safety said on Wednesday.
As animal-feed oil is often unrefined, it is not safe for human consumption and can cause poisoning, organ damage, toxin build-up and increased risk of chronic diseases if taken over a long period.
Over the past three years, the criminal network raked in an estimated 8.2 trillion dong (US$3.14 million) in revenue selling the popular Ofood cooking oil, state broadcaster Vietnam Television reported.
Initial findings show that the group sold tens of thousands of tons of this toxic oil to a wide range of consumers – from industrial kitchens and restaurants to street food vendors and traditional village snack and sweet shops.