Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - With the Mid-Autumn festival justaround the corner, mooncake markets are bustling offering a variety of tastytreats.

But despite so many tochoose from, with many made by hand in houses and factories around the country,it is still difficult for customers to know just how hygienic the ingredientsare.

The Mid-AutumnFestival is a special time for Vietnamese – especially for children and families.Lanterns will light up the skies and of course, mooncakes will be in abundance.

Traditionally theyare eaten on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month (which falls on September 13 this year), often together with tea. Many buy the cakes to offer to ancestors and give thanks to relatives and business partners.

But how safe arethey?

Many people selltheir cakes online, using social media sites like Facebook or Zalo, but thereare fears they may not meet required standards.

Nguyen Lan Dung, 26,a preschool teacher in Hanoi’s Thanh Xuan district, started making the cakesat home three years ago.

She found the onesavailable too sweet and wanted to add her own twist.

 “At first, Imade 50 cakes for my family and my friends,” she said.

“Their feedback waspositive, which encouraged me to make them for sale.”

Her prices may nothave been that competitive, selling a single 150g cake for 50,000 VND, but shewas confident in her ingredients.

Most of the materialsshe bought at nearby minimarts, Dung said, adding that she didn’t trust thequality of those unlicensed products.

Nguyen Dac Loc,deputy head of Hanoi market watch team, said households selling handmade moon cakesmust abide by the regulations on quality, hygiene and food safety.

But right now,authorities find it difficult to make such checks on those being sold online.

According to TranNgoc Tu, head of Hanoi's Food Safety and Hygiene Division, handmade cakes areusually made on a small scale and not registered with authorised agencies andsold online, so it is difficult to control as well as tracing the origin.

Some establishmentsadvertised their cakes as homemade, but in reality, they were imported fromelsewhere.

Recently, more than4,000 substandard cakes were seized at a facility in Hoang Mai district’s YenSo ward. They were labelled with Chinese characters, but the owners could notshow documents to prove the product’s origin and quality.

To ensure the qualityand safety of the products, the Market Watch General Department assigned theunits to take samples of moon cakes sold to the public for tests.

The department willalso keep an eye on homemade moon cakes, which are sold online and via orders.

Transport, productionand trading of raw materials will also come under the spotlight to make sureeveryone is selling quality cakes.

The departments willfocus specifically on large-scale moon cake production businesses andstrengthen inspection on the prices of the cakes and the recovery of expiredproducts after the festival.

Over the past twomonths, inspectors from Hai Ba Trung district have punished 27 moon cakemanufacturers and fines of nearly 65 million VND (2,800 USD). About 1,700 mooncakes with unknown origin have also been confiscated.

Tu suggestedconsumers should choose carefully to assure their safety.

They should buy fromprestigious sellers with good reviews online. He also advised people to reportinformation on substandard products or establishments who failed to secure foodsafety. — VNS/VNA