Housewives can now trace the origin of safe pork.

Knowing whether food is clean or not will be through the application of information technology to control the production chain from the time the pig is sold, slaughtered...

Faced with the increasingly difficult-to-control situation of unsafe food, Ho Chi Minh City is launching a project to identify and trace the origin of pork to control food safety and hygiene and trace the origin of pork.

This project will apply information technology to control the production chain from the time the pig is sold, slaughtered to the time it is circulated to the market through labeling. When the pork is labeled, consumers can use smartphones and iPads to scan the label and trace the origin of the meat. If this project is successful, 80% of the pork sold in the city market can be traced.

Recently, Ms. Nguyen Thi My on Tran Hung Dao Street, District 5 and many other housewives are extremely worried about the news that pork using growth hormones and banned substances is widespread but difficult to control...

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Therefore, when she learned that from next November at Hoa Binh market, near her house, one of the city's five traditional markets will sell pork with traceability stamps, Ms. My excitedly said: "If pork is stamped, consumers will feel more secure, meat eaters will no longer be afraid because pork has traceability."

Not only consumers are excited, but some traders in the market also support this program. Because the cost of stamping on meat does not increase significantly - only about 200 VND/kg. Consumers feel secure when choosing to buy more stamped pork. Therefore, some traders also hope that their business will be more favorable.

At Hoa Binh market, District 5, about 5 tons of pork are consumed every day and there are more than 50 traders selling this item. The market management board is also promoting and encouraging traders to participate in the program.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Lanh, a pork vendor at Hoa Binh Market, District 5, said: “If we put up a label saying our products are selling well, it will be more convenient for us. Because consumers who know the origin of the meat will prefer to buy meat with a label.”

Every day, Ho Chi Minh City consumes about 10,000 pigs. The project to identify and trace the origin of pork will be implemented at two wholesale markets, Hoc Mon and Binh Dien, five type 1 markets of the city, such as: Ben Thanh, An Dong, Hoa Binh, Bau Cat, Thai Binh and the supermarket system, convenience stores Co.opmart, Co.opfood, Satramart, Satrafood, Vissan, Sagrifood. These are pilot models of food safety markets in Ho Chi Minh City in the period of 2016 - 2020. This project is implemented by the Department of Industry and Trade of the city in coordination with functional agencies. This is a chain of links, involving many stages, involving many participating agencies and units, from production farms, veterinary agencies, slaughterhouses, wholesale markets to management boards of markets, supermarkets and small traders...

Each stage will update information into the main computer so that the program can control the entire chain from pigs leaving the farm, veterinary quarantine, slaughterhouse, to markets... All these stages must be carried out actively and synchronously for the program to be effective.

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Hoa, Deputy Director of the Department of Industry and Trade of Ho Chi Minh City said: "On the identification circle, there will be 20-30 stamps corresponding to 20-30 pieces of meat that will be cut and there will be information connection. When traders participate in this program, they will be encoded with the stamp of their stall. If they do not manage this stamp well, their meat stall's reputation will be lost."

In the chain of control and traceability, the last step is very important. When the pig is given two identification bands and split into two pieces, it will be distributed to retail markets. From here, traders will continue to cut the meat into small pieces to sell to consumers, the number of stamps will correspond to the number of these pieces of meat. Some consumers are concerned: if not well controlled, there will be a situation where pork of unknown origin is mixed in to be labeled as clean pork and sold outside, because not all markets have 100% of traders participating in this program.

Mr. Bui Manh Chung, Head of Hoa Binh Market Management Board said: “Before meat enters the market, we have a veterinary team to control it. For households that do not participate in the program, we have our own symbols to monitor and check. Any small business household that participates in the stamping program has a logo to trace its origin. For households that do not participate in the program, we definitely do not sell stamps and we will increase inspection and control to prevent meat of unknown origin from being mixed in.”

The act of stamping each piece of pork to trace its origin is quite new and initially only implemented by Ho Chi Minh City, so there will certainly be many difficulties and problems. However, this is a positive start for the city to gradually build safe food markets./.

According to VOV