Association fined for misleading information on fish sauceThe Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT)’s authorised agencies have decided to penalise the Viet Nam Standard and Consumers Association (VINASTAS) for misleading reports on the toxicity in fish sauce. Organic arsenic which is present naturally in traditional fish sauce is safe for human consumption, according to the Ministry of Health. On October 18 last year, the association published on its website a story titled “Nearly 85 per cent of fish sauce samples of 88 enterprises fail to meet standards.”The story contained misleading information, according to which 95.65 per cent of traditional fish sauce samples failed to meet standards pertaining to arsenic level. The information was misleading since the survey made no distinction between organic and inorganic arsenic content in fish sauce. The inaccurate information about the quality of fish sauce meant VINASTAS violated the Food Safety Law, according to the MoIT.

Source: VietNamNet News May 26, 2017 10:52 UTC