cooking-162-09.jpg" hspace="1" align="left" vspace="1" class=pix>
A roadside bun rieu (crab paste noodle soup) eatery in Ho Chi Minh City.

Calling for new laws and more money to enforce rules, National Assembly (NA) members agreed at a meeting Wednesday that food safety measures in Vietnam are atrocious.

She said the Health Ministry was responsible for the problems, and added that she was worried tainted meals were showing up on the tables of local families.

Representative Dang Thi Nga of Lam Dong Province said local agencies knew about the violations but were doing nothing about it.

Nguyen Thi Hoa, a delegate from Hanoi, said regulations needed to state much more clearly and exactly what local agencies’ responsibilities were on the issue.

Many deputies agreed with Hoa and said the government needed to expedite the drafting of new law on food safety and hygiene.

Hoa also proposed stricter punishments for food safety violations, arguing that current fines were too low to act as a deterrent.

She said the fine for trading unsafe vegetables was VND100,000- 300,000 (US$5.5-16.70) and that those caught trading less than 5 kilograms of banned pesticides were fined only VND200,000-500,000 ($11- 27.80).

Strange fruit

Dang Vu Minh, chairman of the assembly’s Science, Technology and Environmental Committee, said Vietnam produces an average of 11.5 million tons of vegetables per year. But he said only 8.5 percent of the nation’s vegetable fields could be considered safe, according to government regulations on pesticide use, packaging and clean fertilizer. He said the rate for safe fruit orchards was just 20 percent.

Between 2007 and 2008, more than 90 percent of all fresh fruits and vegetables sampled b government agencies met food safety standards. However, in large cities like Ho Chi Minh City, agencies can monitor only 20-30 percent of fresh vegetables on the market, he said.

In the second half of 2008, nearly 11.7 percent of vegetable samples taken from Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Tien Giang and Vinh Phuc provinces, or 48 of 412 samples, were found to have pesticide residues exceeding permissible levels. The rate among fruit samples was 15.2 percent, or 15 out of 99.

The country monitored only 58.1 percent of the total slaughtered cattle and fowl over the 2007-2008 period, down from 61.8 percent in 2004-2006. Only 617 cattle and poultry slaughtering establishments have been monitored this year, while 16,512 small establishments have gone unchecked.

In 2008, 11.08 percent of meat and raw meat products were found to contain chemical residues, Minh said, adding that it was the highest level in the last five years.

Only 11.2 percent of food processing and vending establishments met food safety requirements and hygiene in 2008.

Food poisoning killed 116 people in 2007 and 2008.

Show me the money

Delegate Truong Thi Thu Hang proposed that the government increase per capita investment in food management to VND9,000 ($0.50) a year, nearly nine times the current rate.

“It may be a burden to the state budget, especially in the difficult economic stage we’re going through now, but we should be determined toward having safe food resources for the health of the community and the future generation,” she said.

A recent government report said some VND329 billion ($18.3 million) in state funds had been spent on managing the implementation of food safety and hygiene regulations between 2004 and 2008. The investment equals 1/19 of the money Thailand spends per capita on the same issue, and 1/136 of the US Food and Drug Administration budget.

Deputy Anh said the country has focused more on food safety for exports rather than on the domestic market.

Many border gates don’t have enough equipment to test imported food products properly and surveillance is mainly done by the five senses of the custom officers on duty, she said.

Dodging bullets

Minister of Health Nguyen Quoc Trieu said local agencies must take responsibility as stipulated by the Food Safety and Hygiene Ordinance.

Agency leaders will have to take the greatest responsibility and the government will evaluate the job they have done, he said.

Each individual must do their job and they will be evaluated to produce better results in the future, he said.

Reported by Bao Van