The Department of Food Safety has asked the Hanoi Police to investigate and handle the Pate Minh Chay case of poisoning many people.

 

The document signed by Deputy Director Nguyen Hung Long on September 1 mentions that Minh Chay pate products of Alternative Living Company contain Clostridium botulinum bacteria, causing many people in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to be hospitalized due to poisoning, with "severe and prolonged injuries".

The Department requests the police to investigate, verify and handle the case.

 

According to the announcement of the Department, from July 13 to August 18, scattered many provinces appeared at least 9 people hospitalized due to poisoning after eating Minh Chay pate. Patients with symptoms of fatigue, drooping eyelids, weak limbs, difficulty swallowing, muscle paralysis, difficulty breathing ... Most patients with severe progress must be ventilated, the process of mechanical ventilation is expected to be two months.

 

The first information on suspected poisoning caused by Clostridium botulinum was given by Bach Mai Hospital on August 19. A day later, the food safety agency inspected Minh Chay pate production facility in Dong Anh, Hanoi, and ordered to suspend production. Packed pate and pate samples from patients who had not eaten were sent for testing, Deputy Director Nguyen Hung Long said.

 

On August 28, the National Food Safety Testing Institute and the Ho Chi Minh City Institute of Public Health both announced the results that the whole Minh Chay pate samples contained the above bacteria. This is a bacteria that creates a toxin when creating botulinum toxin - a very powerful poison that affects the nerve end and causes muscle paralysis, which can lead to death.

 

The Food Safety Bureau, on August 29, released an emergency warning about Minh Chay pate, asking the public to stop using all Alternative Living company's products, to recall the products.

 

Ho Chi Minh City has verified nearly 1,300 customers who bought nearly 1,500 boxes of Minh Chay pate, recently recovered about 10% of the products. Ms. Pham Khanh Phong Lan, Head of the City Food Safety Department, worries that if buyers dispose of products incorrectly, they will create a new risk of infection, and urges people to recall at regulated points. announced.

 

The representative of Minh Chay brand, on the company's website, admitted that the poisoning pate information was correct, apologized to the consumer and urged those who bought the product to make a product recall.

 

Botulinum is the most powerful toxin in the world, can be fatal in very small doses. Toxins are usually produced in environments contaminated with bacteria, anaerobes, and at the right temperature. Cases of poisoning have happened with processed foods and canned foods. Bacteria are killed if canned foods are reheated to 100 degrees Celsius.

 

Vietnam does not currently have antitoxin serum, and must be imported from abroad. Most of the patients are treated with assisted ventilation, plasma exchange, antibiotics and physical therapy exercise. Of the 9 hospitalized in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, 5 were discharged after several days of mechanical ventilation.