Authorities shut down a large sausage casing manufacturer in Kampong Speu province after discovering its owners had been operating illegally for two years and were using forbidden chemical substances.

Touch Yuthea, deputy secretary of counterfeit products at the Interior Ministry, said authorities first noticed the casings being sold in O’Russey Market several months ago. Lab tests detected the dangerous chemical formalin in the casings, according to Yuthea. Formalin is banned in Cambodia but still widely used as a preservative in many types of food.

Yuthea said months of investigation led police to the factory in Kampong Speu’s Odong district, where owner Ving Huy, 39, of Phnom Penh, was illegally importing pig and sheep intestines and turning them into sausage casings.

“We are still investigating where the intestines were imported from,” Yuthea said. “[The owners] said they add the forbidden chemical formalin and other acid when the imported product arrives, but we are preparing to send these samples to the lab to see the real result.”

Yuthea said the company did not have permission to import the materials or sell the casings and has been operating illegally for about two years.

Police are questioning Huy and another manager at the company, and are doing further testing on the products.

The General Commissariat of National Police said on its Facebook page that investigators found a few thousand barrels and roughly a thousand kilograms of sausage casings and other materials for production.

According to their post, some of the materials were imported from China, while some were domestic.