When there’s nothing to worry about

In November, the media and various agencies reported a number of serious cases where food hygiene and safety had been ignored. This has set alarm bells ringing about the poor management of government agencies and loose morals on the part of producers.

By September this year, 19 outbreaks of food poisoning were reported in HCM City, which hospitalised 1,024 people. In just over a week, 8 outbreaks of food poisoning were reported at staff canteens due to the use of poor-quality tuna fish.

Over the last two months, the growing frequency of food hygiene and safety violations has caused s public outcry.

On November 24, the police in HCM City detected and seized dozens of tonnes of substandard fat, processed from sick pigs and cows in Hoc Mon district.

On November 11, the Health Department in HCM City announced the test results of 6 samples of preserved fruit accidentally taken from the Binh Tay market. Most of them contained from 2-13 percent of cyclamate - an additive banned by the Ministry of Health, while the lead content in the samples of preserved fruits and dried kiwi products was above permitted levels.

On November 23, the Health Department in HCM City stopped five fried onion producers from operating after they were caught using improper equipment without having food hygiene and safety certificates.

Earlier, the Veterinary Department and the Department for Agriculture and Rural Development in HCM City had also detected hundreds of tonnes of out-of-date imported frozen meat sold on the market.

Despite being an industrialised city, the volume of food produced in HCM City can only meet 20 percent of consumer demand while the rest comes from 20 other localities in the country.

A senior official from the Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry said that about 80 percent of imported food was not strictly managed. Furthermore, due attention was not paid to production and preservation processes.

With a total population of nearly 8 million, but Ho Chi Minh City has only 160 medical workers in charge of food hygiene and safety. On average each medical worker has to take care of about 50,000 people, in terms of food hygiene and safety. Many people in HCM City have a habit of eating on the street, or at the office or school. So it is essential to increase inspection of food hygiene and safety in offices, schools and restaurants to prevent food poisoning.

The quality of food is not a new topic. For many years, this issue has been discussed at numerous conferences and seminars and Q&A sessions at the HCM City People’s Council. Many measures have been put forward, but there are still a lot of shortcomings when ensuring food hygiene and safety due to the ineffective implementation of these measures.

Food hygiene and safety is considered a sensitive issue as serious violations have sapped consumer confidence.

Even today, people still find contaminated chicken and unclean drinking water here and there. A series of questions have been raised, such as: how much bad-quality food is absorbed in our bodies? How will it affect our health? Who can help us tackle the problem?

To ensure the quality supplies to people, in the future, HCM City will increase its consumer protection service and set up a food management agency to deal with food hygiene and safety. The city will also identify the duties and responsibilities of food producers and distributors so that local people will have nothing to worry about the quality of their food.