Vegetarian food is increasingly popular in family meals. However, on the market, there are still many vegetarian products of unknown origin, which may be potentially harmful to consumers’ health.

Customers choose vegetarian food at the Co.opmart Da Nang supermarket. Photo: QUYNH TRANG

Recent surveys conducted at traditional wet markets across the city showed that the majority of vegetarian food products are made from vegetables, mushrooms, mold beans, soybeans and other easy-to-find traditional ingredients.

Notably, except for vegetarian products made by prestigious companies with the clear display of the traceability stamp, production and expiration dates, many processed items created in the form of traditional crafts are only packaged in a simple manner without the production date nor information on processed materials.

At a stall selling vegetarian foodstuff at the Phuoc My Market located in Son Tra District, most of the vegetarian products on display for sale do not have the production and expiration dates.

Mr. Nguyen Tan Hai, Head of the Da NangFood Safety Management Committee, said, for the storage of ready-to-consume food, stores/stalls must store hot food at a temperature of more than 60 degrees Celsius with the use of warming equipment and below 5 degrees Celsius applied to food that needs to be kept cold with the utility of refrigerators.

After four hours in the danger zone, most TCS foods will contain enough bacteria to cause a risk for foodborne illness. Therefore, hot/cold ready-to-eat foods that are not temperature controlled should be consumed or reheated/chilled within 4 hours. After that, they should be discarded.

Besides, it is highly recommended that, according to this principle, with ‘home-made’ food, consumers need to be careful in choosing those with secured quality in a bid to avoid food poisoning.

A stall set up at the Hoa Cuong wholesale market offers a variety of vegetarian food products. Photo: QUYNH TRANG

In supermarkets, vegetarian products are also quite abundant, which proves that the demand for vegetarian food in this food consumption market is very large.

For example, the GO supermarket now features about 200 packaged vegetarian products made from daily fresh products such as mushrooms of all kinds and fresh tofu.

Up to 99% of the vegetarian products on sale here are produced domestically by reputable suppliers in the field of vegetarian food, completely satisfying the needs of customers. The average sales of this food type usually  account for 2 - 3%/store.

Likewise, for vegetarian items put on shelves at the Co.opmart Da Nang supermarket, there are as many as dry seaweed, all kinds of soy products and vegetarian sauce.

Local experts recommended that consumers should buy food products at production establishments managed by the State with the certificates of food safety eligibility or periodical inspections and sampling for testing.

Of special note, customers can look up information about food facilities managed by the State through Zalo by going to the ‘Switchboard 1022 Da Nang’ page, selecting ‘Lookup’, and then going to ‘Food safety and hygiene’ for reliable information and pose any questions if any.

Reporting by QUYNH TRANG – Translating by A. THU