On April 25th, during a celebration event for the establishment of Ben Cat City, Binh Duong Province, an incident regarding “fresh rice noodles containing chemicals” occurred. This was reported by Mrs. Nguyen Binh, Director of Nguyen Binh Trading Production Service Co., Ltd. (Nguyen Binh Company) to Tien Phong newspaper. The company supplied 70 kg of rice noodles (0.5 kg/bag) to H.H Company, which then provided them to Hotel B. During the event, Mrs. Binh received a call from H.H Company, informing her of the detection of Han The and formaldehyde in their rice noodles. She immediately went to the site and was met by a woman in a green dress, who claimed to be responsible for food hygiene and safety at the event. This woman announced that quick tests showed positive results for Han The and formaldehyde in Nguyen Binh’s rice noodles, using test kits provided by the Binh Duong Department of Health’s Food Hygiene and Safety Bureau.
Three samples of Nguyen Binh Company’s rice noodles tested positive for Han The and formaldehyde.
Mrs. Binh, unconvinced by the results, requested a retest. Three individuals, who did not wear name badges identifying their affiliation, only tags that read “Event Staff,” conducted the quick test again in her presence. They did not wear gloves and used bottled water for the test. The results, which took about eight minutes, showed that the three samples, taken from the same bag of rice noodles, reacted differently: one turned green, another white, and the last one turned purple. When Mrs. Binh asked to purchase another test kit, she was denied and asked to leave by the woman and the event’s security staff. The rice noodles were then sealed and returned to Nguyen Binh Company.
To prove the cleanliness of her product, Mrs. Binh requested that the quick test team and Hotel B accompany her to conduct a quantitative test for Han The and formaldehyde, but they refused. On April 26, 2024, she brought the sealed rice noodles to QUATEST 3 in Ho Chi Minh City for testing. QUATEST 3 randomly selected six samples from the remaining 70 sealed bags of rice noodles for testing. On May 9, 2024, QUATEST 3 released the results, confirming that Nguyen Binh’s rice noodles contained no chemicals.
The quick test procedure conducted by the “event staff” was considered substandard.
A testing expert from Ho Chi Minh City commented that the discrepancy in results could be due to issues with the sample collection procedure and the testing of the fresh rice noodles. He questioned whether the sampling equipment had been sterilized prior to use and pointed out that using bottled water instead of purified water could also lead to inaccurate results.
QUATEST 3’s test results showed no chemicals present in the sealed samples of Nguyen Binh’s rice noodles.
Mrs. Binh expressed concern that the spread of information about the alleged presence of Han The and formaldehyde, before official confirmation by authorities, not only damaged her personal reputation but also posed a risk to the trust and reputation of her company in the clean food industry.
When contacted, the Binh Duong Department of Health stated that the noodle testing was part of their important task to ensure the health and safety of officials attending the event and thus, the details were confidential. They added that upon receiving the initial positive test results, they immediately took action to replace all the rice noodles to guarantee food safety.
