The conference was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung, who admitted that a number of State management agencies, businesspeople and ordinary people have not yet been fully aware of the importance of food safety and hygiene.

He requested the ministries, sectors and localities to make constructive recommendations to the Prime Minister's draft instruction on urgent measures to ensure food safety and hygiene.

Deputy PM Hung pointed to the need to issue regulations to manage food hygiene in order to stop food poisoning that recently occurred at several industrial zones and schools.

Food suppliers, food businesses and heads of companies which were found to use unsafe food should be handled strictly, the Government leader stressed.

In addition to those immediate steps, Deputy PM Hung asked relevant agencies to work on the building of a law on food safety and hygiene to create a firm legal foundation to support the work in a long term.

At the conference, the participants proposed specific measures to increase coordination among ministries, sectors and localities in ensuring food safety and hygiene.

They set a target of matching 80 percent of the country's food standards with international ones by 2010.

VNA