Despite the Mid-Autumn Festival still being a month away, mooncakes are already being sold in abundance in HCMC’s online platforms, traditional markets, and grocery stores. Alongside reputable brands, there is a proliferation of cheap, unlabeled mooncakes of uncertain origin, posing significant food safety risks.
Alarmingly, the so-called "homemade" products are often sold without labels, brands, or expiration dates, and their prices range from an exceptionally cheap one of VND15,000 (US$0.6) per item to VND250,000 ($10). Some stalls even offer high-end mooncakes with fillings like abalone, salmon, and roasted chicken, priced from VND450,000 – 1 million ($18 – 40) a box of four cakes.
A vendor at Binh Tay Market shared that Chinese-imported and homemade mooncakes are more popular than branded ones due to their affordable prices and variety. "Large brands usually have their own counters, while vendors in traditional markets mainly sell handmade or cheap imported Chinese mooncakes to be competitive," she said.
One typical feature of such cakes is that they are poorly packaged in plastic bags without any information about ingredients, expiration dates, or manufacturing location. However, when asked about the quality of the ingredients, the vendor usually insists that the cakes were imported from a large system, had been inspected, and had food safety certificates from HCMC, ensuring their quality and safety.
The situation at online shops on social network sites is not at all simpler. It is easy to find stalls selling cakes for as little as a few thousand to a few tens of thousands of VND. To attract customers, sellers claim that their cakes are homemade from high-quality ingredients that are free of preservatives and additives, have clear origins, and are produced in a closed process that ensures food safety.
According to health experts, there are many food safety criteria for the mooncake production process, including ingredients, additives, machinery, equipment, factories, and the environment. If just one step in the production process is compromised, cross-contamination can easily occur.
Molds can produce toxins in warm and humid conditions, affecting the quality of food, especially grain-based foods and the ingredients used in mooncakes. Additionally, to extend shelf life, many bakers use harmful chemical preservatives.
Hoang Minh Dung, level-I specialist from the Emergency Care Unit of Saigon General Hospital, explained that mooncakes, made with a variety of ingredients, pose risks such as mold toxins (including mycotoxins, aflatoxins, and trichothecenes), unauthorized colorants, and chemical preservatives if the processing is not done properly.
Among them, mycotoxins are heat-resistant ones that can affect the liver, kidneys, or immune system when consumed in high doses. Aflatoxins are a group of mycotoxins and are among the most potent in terms of acute toxicity and carcinogenicity.
In addition, some strains of Escherichia coli can produce Shiga toxin, causing food poisoning symptoms such as abdominal pain, diarrhea, or vomiting after consuming contaminated food.
Aware of these risks, the Department of Food Safety (under the Ministry of Health) has advised consumers to purchase mooncakes from reputable establishments with clear origins. While there are many reputable mooncake producers, there are also organizations and individuals who are secretly selling smuggled mooncakes of unknown origin, posing a safety risk to consumers.
Lawyer Nguyen The Cuong, Director of Duc Chinh Law Co. Ltd. (member of the HCMC Bar Association), commented that the sale of mooncakes, specifically those of unknown origin, is a violation of the law.
Mooncakes of unknown origin are products circulating in the market without any basis to determine their place of manufacture and lack product labels. Individuals or organizations involved in the sale of mooncakes or other goods of unknown origin will be subject to administrative penalties, forced destruction of the cakes, and may be required to take remedial measures if any consequences arise.
