Vietnamese fans of chicken feet now have to think twice before ordering their favorite dish, following what is known as the ‘zombie chicken feet” scandal, the latest in a series of food safety scares in China.
Chicken feet is a common dish that can be found from sidewalk eateries to restaurants in Vietnam, as well as in family meals.
The Vietnamese livestock industry is cable of supplying 500,000 pairs of chicken feet to the market on a daily basis, but eateries mostly source imported products, whose are up to 60 percent cheaper than those produced domestically.
But news that around 800 metric tons of smuggled frozen meat, including poultry and beef, have been seized by Chinese authorities earlier this month has left these Vietnamese consumers in shock.
The smuggled meat was worth 10 million yuan (US$1.6 million), some of which reportedly dates back to the 1970s, according to Chinese media.
“I heard that the smuggled chicken feet had passed through Vietnam’s Hai Phong port, so I no longer dare to buy imported frozen chicken feet,” Tran Thanh Huyen, who lives in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Friday.
Huyen and her husband both love to eat chicken feet, and used to buy the boiled and grilled products from eateries on Nguyen Du or Ham Nghi Streets.
“But these establishments only sell frozen meat so I have to switch to buy fresh products and cook them by myself,” Huyen said.
Many other housewives say they have also stopped eating imported chicken feet, and shifted to buy fresh products or those with adequate details regarding manufacturers and expiration dates.
Nguyen Van Quoc, who runs an alcohol eatery in Binh Tan District, admitted that facilities like his or restaurants mostly use imported frozen chicken feet thanks to lower prices but longer perseveration.
“I have read about the scandal in China but my supplier says they source the chicken feet from the U.S., with valid expiration date so I am not so worried,” he said.
While consumers are concerned about the safety of their favorite dish, chicken feet still is widely available at wholesale markets in Ho Chi Minh City.
At the Binh Dien market in District 8, booths are full of cardboard boxes of chicken feet, with labels in English, Chinese, and even Arabic letters.
Some of the products have an expiration of as long as three years.
“No problem if you keep them for three years at a below 18 degrees Celsius,” wholesalers assert.
One of the traders, Chi, said she sells more than two tons of chicken products every day. This means 20 to 30 tons of the products are distributed to smaller markets on a daily basis from the wholesale market.
Binh Dien market mostly sources frozen chicken products from the U.S. and Brazil, but a trader revealed that Chinese products also arrive occasionally, but only in small quantities of “a couple of tons every day.”
Vietnam imports more than 200 metric tons of frozen chicken feet from dozens of countries, including the U.S., Brazil, Germany, Denmark and Turkey, on an annual basis, according to customs data.
But there are also huge amounts of products smuggled into Vietnam from China, according to some food companies.
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