Café chains The Coffee House, Highlands Coffee and Phuc Long announced Saturday they had stopped the sale of beverages containing raw materials sourced from Halong Canfoco, as the company is commonly known.

The Coffee House has pulled Phuc Kien lotus lychee tea and Americano lychee off its menu, while Phuc Long said it has stopped buying lychee from Halong Canfoco and switched to another supplier.

They also said they no longer source pate and other processed meats for sandwiches from the company.

Highlands Coffee said while it has never sourced pork from Halong Canfoco, it has now stopped buying some other ingredients from it though it did not specify the items.

At many Highlands Coffee stores in Hanoi, staff said they had temporarily stopped selling lychee jelly tea.

On Friday Highlands Coffee said it had previously bought lotus seeds and canned lychees from Halong Canfoco but no longer.

Halong Canfoco’s financial reports show it does business with several large F&B chains, including Highlands Coffee, Pho 24, Phuc Long, and The Coffee House.

Do Duy Thanh, CEO of consultancy FnB Director and founder of Horeca Business School, said Halong Canfoco’s factory holds ISO 22000:2018 certification, a comprehensive food safety management system that incorporates Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) principles, traceability and continuous improvement.

This provides stronger assurance than many conventional food safety standards, he claimed.

Lychee jelly tea sold at a Highlands Coffee store in Tan Thuan, Ho Chi Minh City. Photo by VnExpress/Tat Dat

“The use of Halong Canfoco products by F&B chains cannot be described as careless,” he said, noting the supplier’s nearly 70-year history, broad market presence and compliance with industry requirements.

But he admitted that even high standards could not completely rule out risks, especially at large businesses.

On Saturday local authorities said police had arrested the CEO of Halong Canfoco, Truong Sy Toan, and three quality management employees after finding more than 130 tons of diseased pork had been used in food production.

This happened in September 2025, when Hai Phong’s economic police division intercepted two vehicles carrying 1.2 metric tons of pork of unknown origin. Tests found the meat infected with African swine fever virus.

As they expanded the investigation, authorities found the frozen diseased pork stored at Halong Canfoco’s warehouses.

The company had already made more than 1.7 metric tons of paté, equivalent to around 14,000 cans, from diseased meat in early Sept., the police said.