Applying the Law on Food Safety in Agricultural Production
(Baonghean) - The Food Safety Law was passed by the 12th National Assembly on June 28, 2010 and took effect from July 1, 2011. One of the highlights of the law is the assignment of State management of food safety by sector and management according to the production chain. Each sector will be responsible for managing the assigned field throughout the production process until the product is consumed on the market. With the decentralization of management according to the production chain, it has contributed to avoiding overlap in State management of food safety, creating more favorable conditions for production establishments, and assigning specific responsibilities to each sector.
The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development is assigned the following tasks: managing food safety for primary production of agricultural, forestry, fishery and salt products; managing food safety throughout the production, collection, slaughter, preliminary processing, processing, preservation, transportation, export, import and trading of cereals, meat and meat products, aquatic products and aquatic products, vegetables, tubers, fruits, eggs and egg products, raw fresh milk, honey and honey products, genetically modified foods, salt and other agricultural and food products according to Government regulations; managing food safety for tools, packaging materials and food containers during the production, processing and trading of food in the assigned management areas. Thus, the task of controlling food safety of the Department is very heavy, involving many stages and many fields, with the main management subjects being the agricultural, forestry and fishery sector with limited awareness.
Therefore, in order for the Food Safety Law to effectively enter into the production and business of agriculture, forestry and fishery, it is necessary to have the participation of the entire industry along with the coordination of local authorities and mass organizations to implement a number of solutions as follows:
Firstly: Strengthening the dissemination of information to the people: State management agencies at all levels need to organize the dissemination of State regulations on food safety and hygiene, the importance of ensuring food safety in production and business, and the harmful effects of unsafe food; it is necessary to emphasize to producers that ensuring food safety and hygiene is to ensure their own rights and interests.
Second: Improve the capacity of state management of food safety, especially the capacity of managing the quality of agricultural, forestry and fishery products. Currently, the Department of Agricultural, Forestry and Fishery Product Quality Management has been established, which is the focal unit responsible for implementing quality management and food safety in agricultural, forestry and fishery production. Accordingly, it will invest in equipment for service and management, and in the immediate future, invest in building a testing room capable of quickly testing some common food safety indicators such as: testing food preservatives and microbiology.
Third: Early planning and formation of concentrated agricultural and aquatic food production areas, applying food management rules towards safety, sustainability, ensuring traceability; having policies to support pioneering establishments in applying good food management rules in production such as: GMP, GAP, VietGap...
Fourth: Strengthen inspection, examination and control of food safety along the production chain. Through inspection, promote propaganda and guidance to raise awareness and responsibility of organizations, individuals in production, business and consumers.
Le Anh Tuong
