VietNamNet Bridge – Experts yesterday, August 8, suggested that HCM City establish more safe food chains where quality control for essential items is maintained from the farm to the dining table.

Customers purchase vegetables at the Binh Phu Metro in District 6, HCM City. HCM City should establish more safe food chains where quality control for essential items is maintained from the farm to the dining table.

The chains must be managed by a single office with representatives from different agencies, they said.

At a workshop held in HCM City by the municipal chapter of the Viet Nam Fatherland Front, Professor Chu Pham Ngoc Son, deputy chairman of the City's Union of Science and Technology Associations, said food safety and hygiene was an issue that needed to be tackled urgently.

Although the city has tried to improve its management of food quality, problems have persisted, including the use of banned chemicals or additives as well as food tainted with pathogen, Son said.

Huynh Le Thai Hoa, head of the city's Food Safety and Hygiene Division, said that if all inputs for food processing, food transportation and manufacturing are well managed, the safety and hygiene of products can be ensured for consumers.

The establishment of more safe food chains for agricultural produce will also benefit enterprises and companies, he said.

The city is co-operating with relevant agencies in neigbouring provinces to carry out pilot projects similar to those implemented earlier for eggs, pork and vegetables.

The municipal Department of Industry and Trade is drafting a plan on co-operation between the city and key economic areas in the country as well as other countries to establish such chains, Hoa said.

The department also is calling on manufacturers and distributors to join the projects, he added.

Hoa said he hoped consumers would support products (identified by a logo) that are sold by shops participating in the safe food chains.

Moreover, the city aims to turn have all its wholesale markets become safe food markets.

Currently, the Hoc Mon Wholesale Market is preparing to become one, said Le Ngoc Dao, deputy head of the municipal Department of Industry and Trade.

The department has asked supermarket owners to be strict about refusing unsafe food, she said.

It has also ordered traders to sell products with clear origin and packaging that carries relevant details including the expiry date, she said.

Consumers should support such products in order to reduce and stop the trade in products without clear origins, she added.

To reduce the use of banned chemicals and/or additives, it is important to improve awareness of the harm they cause among manufacturers, especially small-sized facilities.

The department has asked manufacturers, especially small and medium sized ones, to sign an agreement that they would only use permitted chemicals and additives, Hoa said.

Safety inspections

In the first six months of the year, the municipal Food Safety and Hygiene Division inspected 2,088 of 2,835 canteens and catering companies in the city. Of these, 74 were found violating food safety and hygiene regulations.

During this period, the division also found 3,526 food processing and trading facilities violating food safety and hygiene regulations.

It also fined several entities transporting products without origin through the city's gates and destroyed more than 16,000 kilos of seized goods.

Source: VNS