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The National Assembly members have required the draft law on food safety to include more and strict rules for managing street foods.

Localities nationwide should be authorized to manage and set up regulations on street food in their areas, a National Assembly committee has advised the health ministry.

Street food in Vietnam is greatly affected by the economic and social conditions of each locality as well as its residents’ eating and drinking habits, the NA’s Science, Technology and Environment Committee said.

It also noted that street food stalls were too many while the number of ministerial inspectors specializing in food safety was very few. There were only 12 specialized inspectors nationwide, while the need was between 5,000 and 7,000, said Nguyen Dang Vang, deputy head of the committee, told the press.

The draft, meanwhile, states the Ministry of Health will be in charge of writing regulations on street food.

The committee also suggested that the ministry be responsible for all matters relating to state management of food safety food, in order to achieve administrative efficiency.

“A food product now is managed by many agencies,” Vang said. For instance, meat is managed by the agricultural ministry at the breeding stage, and stamped with product brands by the technology ministry. When it is circulated in the market, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Public Security manage it, yet it’s under the health ministry’s management when it’s processed into food, he added.

“The current intention is that a ministry will be responsible for a product from head to toe, meaning that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will manage farm produce from production until it’s introduced into the market.”

The draft also requires functional food to meet certain requirements, including officially scientific information and data backing its functions and a report on its clinical trials by health ministry-assigned institutions.

National Assembly deputies are scheduled to discuss the draft again on November 23.

Source: Thanh Nien, Tuoi Tre