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Food stalls at a market in downtown Ho Chi Minh City.

Ho Chi Minh City has set up teams of health inspectors to check as many food producers, merchants and vendors as possible in the monthlong national food safety campaign that started Wednesday.

The health department’s inspections will cover the production and trading of bottled water, ice, soy sauce and milk as well as the kitchens at schools, hospitals, industrial parks and export processing zones in the city’s 300 wards.

Nguyen Thanh Phong, deputy head of the Health Ministry’s Bureau of Food Hygiene and Safety, said it was an urgent issue in HCMC as the city’s population was increasing rapidly.

“It’s not only the matter of food poisoning, but also the threat of epidemics,” Phong said.

HCMC has more than 46,800 food producers and vendors, or ten percent of the national total, according to Phong.

He said only half of the city’s residents were aware of the issue.

Phong said the city should set up a food safety agency, conduct more inspections, and offer to train people in food safety awareness.

The health department said it would inspect and issue food safety certificates to food producers and traders, with a target of 75 percent of food traders and 100 percent of the food caterers and kitchens at schools and industrial parks.

They would also encourage awareness of food safety from enterprises in the field.

Le Truong Giang, the health department’s deputy director, ordered that the kitchens of schools, restaurants and industrial parks be inspected and warned that these establishments were responsible for the ingredients they used and the food they served.

Food poisoning

Last year, there were 22 reported cases of mass food poisoning in HCMC. The 1,618 adults and children who became violently ill were mostly from schools and industrial zones, the health department said.

Health inspectors found violations by more than half of the 16 licensed alcoholic beverage producers and merchants they checked in 2008.

A pilot project to present certificates to street vendors, carried out in Hoc Mon and District 6, has so far certified only 12 percent of them.

Recent inspections also found dozens of bottled water producers violating the safety regulations, with some products found to be contaminated by dangerous bacteria.

Many small food traders in District 5’s Kim Bien Market have no safety certificate, while some of them display food and industrial chemicals side-byside.

Most of them have not been trained properly and given the appropriate knowledge, so they only deal with problems as they arise rather than take preventive action, Giang said.

He said the department had detected and confiscated a large number of cakes infected with bacteria that were ready for sale last Christmas that could have caused mass poisoning.

However, Giang said the management of food safety had improved recently thanks to the establishment of several wholesale markets.

Around 90 percent of aquatic products, 75 percent of vegetables and 80 percent of meat consumed in the city now come from three major wholesale markets – Tam Binh in Thu Duc District, Tan Xuan in Hoc Mon District and Binh Dien in District 8.

“We have managed about 80 percent of the food in the marketplace,” Giang said.

However, he said the department was yet to issue any safety certificate to food chains which have emerged recently to build systems of breeding/cultivating, harvesting/slaughtering and selling.

Taking the message nationwide

Hanoi’s Steering Committee for Food Hygiene and Safety said they would set up six teams to inspect food hygiene regulations in production, trading and advertising.

Each team will inspect five districts and violators could be named in the media, as well as fined.

In Quang Ngai Province, health inspectors will check farms, factories, markets and shops while the provincial government will run a publicity campaign to make people more aware of food safety.

Khanh Hoa Province authorities also boasted of better food safety management and encouraged all government offices, food producers and residents to participate in the campaign.

As part of the campaign, cars bearing banners are doing the rounds of Nha Trang to publicize the campaign and its message.

Between 2004 and 2008, there were 43 cases of mass food poisoning in Khanh Hoa. Four of the 515 victims died. Since then, four cases have put 50 people in the sickbed.

In Nam Dinh Province, the authorities have ordered thorough inspections, held several conferences on the issue, and publicized the campaign widely in the media.

The inspections are to be done at the provincial, district and communal level. Health Department inspectors will check kitchens at industrial parks and schools as well as the trading of milk and bottled water and the production of soft drinks.

In Quang Binh Province, the publicity for the campaign will be everywhere. Tran Cong Thuat, vice chairman of the Quang Binh People’s Committee, said this was important as the current fines did little to deter violators.

In Ninh Thuan Province, hundreds of young people and health officials attended a rally Wednesday to encourage greater awareness of food safety.

Inspections of more than 3,000 food producers and traders last year revealed violations by nearly a third of them. In Quang Binh alone, there were 223 recorded cases of mass food poisoning last year.

Source: Agencies