The US Embassy in Ha Noi provided Thursday detailed information suggesting that no apples tainted with listeria from the United States have been exported to Viet Nam, while local authorities too reported no discovery of the contaminated fruits so far.

Granny Smith and Gala apples were on January 6 subject to a voluntary recall by Bidart Brothers, as environmental testing revealed contamination with listeria monocytogenes at the firm’s apple packing facility.

Bidart Brothers is based in Bakersfield, California, whereas “over 98 percent of all apples exported from the United States to Viet Nam come from Washington State,” the US Embassy in Ha Noi said in a press release yesterday.

A customer chooses US apples at the Ben Thanh Market in Ho Chi Minh City

Other suppliers to the Vietnamese market include producers in California, New York, and Oregon, according to the document.

“No other US companies producing apples, including those growing in Washington State, are part of the Bidart Brothers recall,” the embassy asserted.

In addition to Bidart Brothers, three other companies in the United States that used apples from Bidart have issued voluntary recalls of their caramel-coated apples due to the potential contamination with listeria monocytogenes, according to the press release.

The companies include Lochirco Fruit & Produce, Inc. (Happy Apple Company), in Missouri; California Snack Foods, in California; and Sugar Daddy LTD (Merb’s Candies), also in Missouri.

The US Embassy in Ha Noi met with the Vietnamese Plant Protection Department, under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, over the issue the same day.

The deputy department head, Hoang Trung, asserted during the meeting that Viet Nam has never imported caramel apples. “At this time, not a single batch of caramel-coated apples has been imported from the US to Viet Nam,” he said.

The Viet Nam Food Administration (VFA) also announced on Wednesday that no registration for the import of caramel-coated apples has been issued since 2012.

The Southeast Asian country, meanwhile, has imported some 1,000 metric tons of fresh apples via air and sea transport so far this year, Trung added.

From 2014 to date, total imports of apples are around 17,000 metric tons, all of which “had to pass food safety checks before clearing customs,” the official said. “No batches of US apples have been found to have quality issues,” he added.

The official said the department’s review found that 90 percent of the US apples shipped to Viet Nam are from Washington State, not California, where Bidard Brothers grows its apples.

The Plant Protection Department has ordered its units to strengthen checks on local fruit imports to see if they were sourced from Bidard Brothers.

The department also requested that relevant agencies take samples of 100 percent of the US apple shipments for listeria monocytogenes tests before clearing customs for them, Trung said.

Viet Nam is among ten countries and territories the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) believes have sourced apples from Bidart Brothers, according to the US Embassy in Ha Noi.

The other markets are Canada, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates.

The FDA has informed all trading partners in these markets “to ensure all consumers and foreign regulators are provided with accurate information and are able to take appropriate actions to prevent the consumption of recalled apple products,” the embassy said.

The FDA along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state and local authorities are investigating a listeriosis outbreak – caused by the bacterium listeria monocytogenes – linked to commercially produced, prepackaged whole caramel apples. The investigation is still ongoing, and no fresh apples have been associated with any illnesses to date.

The US Embassy in Ha Noi said it is communicating with the VFA and other relevant authorities of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to provide the most updated information available.

Supermarkets across Ho Chi Minh City, meanwhile, are still selling US apples, including Granny Smith and Gala apples of producers other than Bidart Brothers.

But consumers are concerned by the news and some have temporarily stopped buying US apples.

“I read the news and decided to buy New Zealand apples instead of the US fruit,” said Tran Thi Chuyen, a consumer in Tan Phu District.