Raising public awareness of food safety

With the theme “Ensuring food safety, focusing on food safety in collective kitchens, catering services and street food”, in the Action Month for Food Safety in 2025, the whole province established 121 inspection teams at all levels, conducting inspections of nearly 3,780 food establishments. Through inspections, most establishments have been aware of ensuring food safety.

There are still grounds for violations.

Dr. Nguyen Dinh Thoan - Deputy Director of the Department of Health , Deputy Head of the Provincial Interdisciplinary Steering Committee for Food Safety and Hygiene said that out of 3,780 food establishments inspected, 4 establishments were found to have violated food safety regulations, and were fined a total of 274 million VND; 2 establishments were warned for not conducting health checks for those directly processing food. At the same time, the violating establishments were required to recall goods and label them properly before continuing to circulate.

Officers of the provincial food safety interdisciplinary inspection team inspected the collective kitchen of Khanh Hoa Salanganes Nest Beverage Joint Stock Company (Dien Khanh district).

During the inspection, the teams took samples for testing of physical, chemical and microbiological indicators, nutritional indicators of 67 food samples (waiting for results); results of rapid testing of 85 food samples for indicators of rancidity in cooking oil, inorganic acid in vinegar, borax in pork sausage, colorants in chili sauce..., all samples passed. In addition, the teams conducted rapid testing of clean utensils (bowls, cups, plates, spoons...) starch on more than 2,570 samples, of which more than 2,380 samples passed (accounting for 92.54%).

Doctor Nguyen Dinh Thoan commented: “Compared to previous years, this year, most of the inspected establishments complied well with the provisions of the law on food safety such as: Having a certificate of qualified food safety facility; self-declaring the quality of food products; organizing periodic health check-ups, organizing confirmation of food safety knowledge for employees directly producing, processing, and trading food; using raw materials of clear origin, performing well the stages of food preservation, transportation, and processing...”.

There are still many difficulties.

Since the beginning of the year, the work of ensuring food safety in general and implementing the action month in particular in the province has been coordinated by functional agencies. Relevant departments, branches and units have effectively promoted their roles in the process of inspecting and controlling compliance with legal regulations for food production and trading establishments; thereby preventing, detecting and stopping establishments from using chemicals and food additives not on the list or exceeding the permitted limits in food processing..., strictly handling violations. At the same time, information, education and communication work has been promoted through many practical activities and forms, from direct communication to social networking platforms... Thereby, contributing to raising the responsibility of food production and trading establishments and awareness of consumers in choosing and using products of clear origin, ensuring food safety.

The provincial food safety interdisciplinary inspection team inspected food ingredients used for cooking at the collective kitchen of the Song Cau Industrial Cluster Management Board - the business location of Khanh Hoa Salanganes Nest State-owned One Member Co., Ltd. (Khanh Vinh district).

In addition to the achieved results, according to Dr. Nguyen Dinh Thoan, this activity still faces some difficulties. In many localities, food production and trading establishments are households, small-scale, traditional, so it is difficult to ensure the conditions of facilities and equipment according to current regulations; knowledge and practice of food hygiene and safety are still limited. Handling violations at the commune level is difficult to implement due to the small business model, the economic conditions of small-scale establishments are limited, so the commune level mainly reminds. The funding source for implementing food safety work at the local level is still limited; the human resources for this work at the levels are too thin...

In order for food safety work to be better implemented in the coming time, Dr. Nguyen Dinh Thoan recommended that the Central Government should soon build a national centralized database system on self-declared food product records, to serve state management, ensure transparency and convenience in inspection, supervision, traceability, as well as improve the effectiveness and efficiency in inspection, examination and handling of violations; regularly organize training courses to update knowledge and provide professional guidance to local officials. At the same time, support localities with communication products to strengthen and diversify propaganda forms suitable for each specific target group. The Provincial People's Committee continues to balance and allocate annual budgets for departments, branches and localities to carry out state management of food safety; allocate sufficient human resources for this work...

C.DAN

Source: https://baokhanhhoa.vn/xa-hoi/202506/nang-cao-y-thuc-cong-dong-ve-an-toan-thuc-pham-e21104b/