Authorities also detected many violations of food hygiene and safety that threaten life and adversely affect people’s health like production and selling of polluted water, production of wine with high methanol level, the import of unhygienic animal’s intestine and the use of poisonous mushrooms. This is considered the worst of the result in observation and inspection of the implementation of food hygiene and safety, said the department.

In order to deal with the situation, all provinces and cities across the countries had established a branch office of food hygiene and safety.

However, food hygiene and safety policy still faces a lot of difficulties. Although the country now has about 496,000 businesses which are at high risk of poor food hygiene and 9.4 million family food businesses, there are only 230 professional inspectors, far below the WHO recommendation of 10-15 inspectors in each province.

Lack of inspectors, improper sanctions of punishment and poor coordination between agencies, and limited participation of local authorities are the reasons that food hygiene and safety is still out of control.

11 inspection delegations established in 33 provinces and cities

In this year’s Action Month for Food Hygiene and Safety, April 15-May 15, 11 delegations will be established to inspect the implementation of food hygiene in 33 cities and provinces nationwide. But whether the situation will be improved is still an uncertain issue.

Nguyen Thanh Phong, deputy head of the Department for Food Hygiene and Safety, says that his department will focus on three major subjects – managers, producers and consumers. Attention will be paid to promoting information dissemination on food hygiene regulations, as well as the responsibilities of businesses in ensuring food hygiene and safety. “The department will also help increase public awareness of producing safe food and improve consumers’ knowledge about the law on food hygiene and safety,” he said.

Localities have been instructed to set up inter-agency inspection groups in districts and communes to monitor the implementation of regulations on food hygiene and safety in nearby areas.

Central inspection delegations will also examine the implementation of the Prime Minister’s decree on food hygiene and safety.

Difficulties in dealing with violations

According to Tong Quang Thin, Director of the Ninh Binh provincial Department for Health, at the end of last year, the provincial inspection delegation had discovered hundreds of kilos of borax-contaminated pork pie, which was then destroyed. Recently, unsafe food was also found in 2,700 rations for participants at a business meeting in Ninh Binh. However, these violations were not strictly punished.

Shortage of medical inspectors

Luong Thi Ha, deputy head of the Cao Bang provincial department for food hygiene and safety, says Cao Bang does not have medical inspectors in charge of food hygiene and safety. At present, the province has to use medical workers in communes and hamlets who can speak ethnic minority languages to help local people understand food safety.

Detailed plans for all localities

Pham Van Hung, head of the Ha Tinh provincial department for food hygiene and safety, says that his department does not have enough professional medical inspectors. Therefore, the trading of unsafe food has become more and more uncontrollable in the province, he adds.

In response to the action month for food hygiene and safety, Ha Tinh province has built detailed plans for all communes to disseminate information on food hygiene and safety.