Honda’s motorbikes burnt into flames, instant noodles contain DEHP and E102, the substances that are prohibited in some countries, while milk powder is contaminated… These are the “deadly impressive” information to Vietnamese consumers in 2011.

Honda’s motorbikes burnt into flames

The information about motorbikes blazing up have appeared continuously on local newspapers recently. The noteworthy thing is that the motorbikes all were manufactured by Honda – a very well known brand to Vietnamese consumers. The products of the manufacturer have been favoured in Vietnam because they have reasonable prices, while users can easily find spare parts. Especially, the vehicles are believed to be energy saving.

The latest case with a Honda’s motorbike occurred on December 1, when a Honda Dream exploded, killing a woman in Bac Ninh City, and severely injuring her 4-year old daughter. The motorbike was bought by Quynh just seven months before.

The explosion case has been admitted by Honda Vietnam’s General Director as a serious case which never happened with Honda’s products before.

Prior to that, on October 27, when carrying child to the school on Hai Ba Trung street, a Honda Air Blade owned by Nguyen Quoc Minh who works for the Voice of Vietnam, suddenly blazed up. The scooter was bought two years ago.

A Honda Wave burst into flames on Pham Hung Road in Hanoi on October 16. On the same day, a Honda Lead burst into flames in Nghe An province. Four days before, an Air Blade blazed up on Nguyen Trai Road in Hanoi.

To date, Honda has only raised its voice about the accident in Bac Ninh, while it has not made any official statement about the four cases in Hanoi which occurred just within two months.

Nearly 9000 Toyota’s cars have technical problems

Engineer Le Van Tach 

In April 2011, the fact that 8830 Innovas of Toyota were found as having technical problems, stirred up the public.

According to Toyota, the cars were mainly Toypta Innova J (taxi) and Innova G which were launched into the markets in the period from 2006 to October 2010. The cars have been found has having three technical errors.

Prior to that, Engineer Le Van Tach, who once worked for Toyota Vietnam for eight years, send the documents to the Vietnam Register, where he asked the agency to clarify the fact that tens of Toyota Fortuners and Innovas were not made in accordance with the design, which may cause unsafety to users. He stressed that the cars need to be recalled for fixes.

A lot of dairy products contaminated

In 2011, a lot of products of well known producers in the world were found as contaminated.

In April, Gun Gun of Japanese Wakado was discovered as infected with E-coli, while South Korean Maeil Dairy for infants had staph infections, the Vietnamese Ministry of Healthcare immediately urged relevant ministries to verify the imports at the border gates and check if the products were available on the Vietnamese market or not.

The checking found out that the products of the manufacturers were available in Vietnam, but the products did not have the same series with the infected products.

In August 2011, Vietnamese people were once stunned by the news that Bacillus Cereus found in Nestle products available in Hong Kong with the concentration higher by 120 times that the allowed level.

The representative of Nestle Vietnam said it has verified the products on the Vietnamese market but has not discovered the infected products.

Instant noodles have DEHP and E102

On the rapid-fire information about the existence of DEHP and E102 in instant noodles, the HCM City Healthcare Inspectors have taken samples of Shin Ramen, Shin Ramyun products made in South Korea for testing. It is now still awaiting the results.

The department is also testing the food products which have been suspected of infecting with DEHP and DINP, while it has requested businesses to test their products themselves and report to the department.