The Vietnam Standards and Consumers Association (Vinastas) has apologised to consumers, fish sauce producers and management agencies for its false report on Vietnamese fish sauce’s quality.

In a public apology post on their website, Vinastas admitted the association’s group which conducted the national fish sauce survey was not careful in their work, causing public concern and affecting fish sauce producers and traders.

Vinastas' false report has caused public concern and affecting fish sauce producers and traders

“We’ll strictly review the responsibilities of related individuals in the case as well as re-consider the way of working to avoid a similar incident,” the association said.

Earlier, on October 18, the association published on its website a story named “Nearly 85% of fish sauce samples of 88 enterprises fail to meet standards”.

The story revealed misleading information in which 104 fish sauce samples (out of 150 tested) failed to meet arsenic standards.

According to the survey showed that 95.65% of fish sauce samples had nitrogen level above 40% and contained arsenic higher than permitted level.

The survey defined organic arsenic of Vietnam’s standard 8-2:2011/BYT as similar to inorganic arsenic which is considered to be highly toxic.

However, the information was misleading since the survey made no distinction between organic and inorganic arsenic content in fish sauce. The arsenic in traditional fish sauce surveyed was organic arsenic, which is safe for humans.

The recent investigation by the Ministry of Industry and Trade into the case concluded that the way the survey was carried was not independent, reliable or transparent.

According to the ministry, despite being conducted on behalf of Vinastas, the survey was not clearly planned and conducted mainly by the association’s president and individuals. Many steps of the process were not approved or monitored by different agencies of the association.