Amending the Food Safety Law: A Commitment to Public Health

The government has just decided to submit to the National Assembly for consideration and inclusion the draft Law on Food Safety (amended) into the legislative program for 2026 - the first year of the 16th National Assembly's term and the implementation of the Resolution of the 14th Party Congress.

Against the backdrop of General Secretary To Lam repeatedly emphasizing the need to improve the quality of life and ensure the safety and happiness of the people, the proposed amendment to the Food Safety Law reflects an effort to translate the Party's major orientations into practice through specific legislative decisions. Ultimately, the Food Safety Law is one of the laws that most directly and frequently affects the daily lives of every citizen.

The decision to submit amendments to the Food Safety Law to the National Assembly also signals that the approach to lawmaking is being placed in closer connection with the requirements of sustainable development, aiming at the core goal of protecting people – with regard to health, safety, and social trust.

In reality, food safety has become one of the most pressing social issues today. Incidents involving counterfeit and substandard food are constantly being uncovered, most recently the tainted food scandal at Ha Long Canned Food Joint Stock Company. This not only directly harms public health but also increases anxiety and insecurity in society. When people question the safety of essential daily products, trust in the market and the government's management capacity is also challenged.

In this context, the decision to amend the Food Safety Law in the first year of the 16th National Assembly's term sends a clear message: economic development cannot and should not be achieved at the expense of people's health; state management cannot stop at issuing regulations, but must ensure that those regulations are actually implemented and effectively put into practice.

This spirit aligns with the direction outlined in the draft document of the 14th Party Congress, which calls for rapid but sustainable development, with improving the quality of life for the people as the overarching goal. In this approach, food safety becomes a crucial pillar of social security, closely linked to human rights and the responsibility of the State.

After 15 years of implementation, the Food Safety Law has contributed to the formation of a basic legal framework for state management in this field. However, the rapid development of the market - especially in the context of the digital economy, e-commerce, and the increasing emergence of new types and products - has revealed many limitations of the current law.

Many regulations have not kept pace with reality and lack consistency with related laws. The organizational model and assignment of responsibilities in food safety management are fragmented, leading to overlapping or gaps in responsibilities. Notably, the post-inspection mechanism – a key factor in maintaining market discipline – still does not meet practical requirements, resulting in many violations only being detected after consequences have occurred.

Therefore, amendments to the Food Safety Law must reflect a substantive shift in legislative thinking: reducing the bureaucratic approach, strengthening the protection of public interests, emphasizing post-inspection and quality control of products, more clearly defining the legal responsibilities of businesses, and equipping regulatory agencies with sufficiently powerful tools to handle violations promptly and effectively.

The quality of life is measured not only by income or consumption capacity, but also by the sense of security in daily life. When people can be confident about what they eat and drink, that is the sustainable foundation of a developed society. Therefore, amending the Food Safety Law aims not only to address legal shortcomings, but also to achieve the larger goal of strengthening social trust – trust in the State's ability to protect, in the transparency of the market, and in the law's zero tolerance for profiteering at the expense of public health.

From that perspective, including the draft Law on Food Safety (amended) in the 2026 legislative program is not simply amending a law, but rather affirming a political commitment: development for the people, starting from the most essential aspects of daily life. It is also an important measure to assess the extent to which the goal of improving the quality of life, as outlined in the draft document of the 14th Party Congress, is being realized.

Source: https://daibieunhandan.vn/sua-luat-an-toan-thuc-pham-cam-ket-vi-suc-khoe-nhan-dan-10404081.html