Threats from illegally-imported chicken legs, pig entrails

17:08' 14/05/2009 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge – Grilled chicken legs are the favourite cuisine of many people, who don’t know that they could lose their lives to food poisoning. Hanoi police have seized a dozen tonnes of illegal-imported chickens and pig entrails so far this year. The Hanoi Market Control Agency has detected many cases of illegally-imported chicken legs and pig entrails, which were addled or very mouldy, being transported from Vietnam-China border provinces to Hanoi. If they had not been seized, these things would have been processed into aromatic and eye-catching cuisine at restaurants in Hanoi. Grilled chicken legs, chicken wings and pig stomach are favoured by many people. But anybody who saw how the food is processed would never dare approach these items again. A reporter of Cong An Nhan Dan witnessed the processing procedures at a restaurant selling grilled chicken legs and wings in Hanoi. Mouldy, leaden chicken legs and wings were taken from nylon bags and washed in a big basin with some kinds of chemicals. It is said that these chemicals make meat look fresh immediately after being washed, even though it might have been mouldy before. They were then mixed with spices for flavour and grilled. The restaurant sold a chicken leg for VND2,000 and a wing for VND10,000. A restaurant like this sells grilled chicken legs and wings with non-origin chili sauce. Besides chicken parts, grilled brisket and pig entrail soup are also very popular and these cuisines are processed from unsafe pig entrails imported illegally from China. On May 12, Hanoi authorities seized a truck from the northern border province of Lang Son which was transporting 40kg of pig brisket and 576kg of pig entrails. The driver confessed that this batch of goods was illegally imported from China via the border gate in Lang Son. These things were very smelly and mouldy. Previously, Hanoi police discovered some similar cases, seizing a dozen tonnes of illegal-imported chickens and pig entrails. Traders not only import chicken legs and wings, but also old chickens from China. This kind of chicken is rejected by Chinese breeders since they cannot lay eggs and are sold to Vietnamese traders at very low prices. By the time they are seized, many chickens have died already.