According to Pham Van Dong, deputy chief of the Department of Animal Health under the agriculture ministry, the chicken legs, which were previously concluded to be unsafe for human consumption, are now sealed and under strict observation in the northern province of Quang Ninh.

The chicken legs were imported by Quang Ninh Seafood Processing Co. Ltd. in two batches on 1 and 10 September, and scheduled to be processed in Viet Nam before being exported to China, according to ThanhNien News.com.

They were then consigned at the northern city of Hai Phong’s port, where the Department of Animal Health on 9 November found that they had no labels, production dates or information about origin. Worse still, they were decaying and contained higher levels of microorganisms than permitted.

The department's Animal Health Agency Area II urged local customs to instruct the importer to destroy or re-export the consignment.

However, customs had cleared it before receiving letters from the agency.