According to the World Health Organisation, Vietnam has more than 3 million cases of food poisoning each year, costing more than US$200 million a year. Nguyen Thanh Phong, deputy head of the Food Hygiene and Safety Department said that Vietnam has five major challenges to cope with. Firstly, there is a high level of micro-organisms and chemical residues in farm and poultry products. Secondly, there are difficulties in controlling illegal imported products across the borders. Thirdly, there are many poor quality foodstuffs on the market. Lastly, there are complicated developments in food poisoning in industrial parks and their cafeteria. There are also many businesses that are not simply hygienic.

There are many difficulties in ensuring food hygiene and safety for consumers. Funding to ensure food hygiene and safety is only levied at VND1,000/person/year, much lower than other countries in the region, which lead to irregular inspections. In addition, the law on protecting the rights of consumers has not been synchronized. Moreover, in recent years, although people’s living conditions have improved, most people have the habit of selecting products because of cheap prices. Some people also eat raw fish and vegetables, blood pudding while other sometimes buy products with unknown origins on the street.

Recently, the Ministry of Health has stepped up inspections but it is still difficult to control the situation, as there are 10 million household businesses. In addition, vendors’ knowledge of food hygiene and safety remains limited as they tend to purchase cheap and unhygienic materials. Therefore, it is not easy for the Ministry to solve the problem as it is related to other issues such as transport, drainage, unsafe water supply, and environmental pollution.

Law on food hygiene and safety to be issued

Mr Phong said that recently, the government has increased funding for work to ensure food hygiene and safety, with VND9,000/person/year and strengthen human resources in the health sector. He added that the biggest problem is working out how to operate and use government funding more effectively.

The Ministry of Health also admitted that the laws on food hygiene and safety have many shortcomings. Over the past ten years, up to 1,000 legal documents have been issued by different agencies. Therefore, the Ministry of Health is planning to draw up a Law on Food Hygiene and Safety and collect opinions from the relevant agencies to avoid overlapping.

Ho Tat Thang, Deputy Chairman of the Association for Product Quality and Consumer Protection (Vinatas), said that it is necessary to strictly deal with violations of food and hygiene safety in a strict manner and upgrade their management practices. A law on Product Quality and Standards will soon be issued to enforce producers to carry out food and hygiene measures more effectively.