Minister Cao Duc Phat: Committed to working one more day, making efforts to fulfill people's expectations

On the afternoon of April 3, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat had a meeting with press agencies to share some issues on ensuring food hygiene and safety.

Minister Cao Duc Phat

Minister Cao Duc Phat explained that due to limited time in the National Assembly, he had not fully expressed the sentence: "Most of our food is safe but people do not know", which made people angry.

“Actually, what I mean is that with the data we have, most of our food is safe, but it is difficult for people to distinguish, not knowing which food is really safe and which food is in violation. It is not that “people do not know” about the situation. People know and are very concerned. I would like to apologize to the people. In my heart, I really want to work hard with my colleagues so that people can use safe food,” said the Minister.

According to Minister Cao Duc Phat, helping people distinguish safe food is the responsibility of the agricultural sector and state management agencies. Therefore, the agricultural sector has also coordinated with localities to try to build safe food supply chains, with certification, recognizable brands and information so that people can feel secure.

Sharing about himself, Minister Phat said that he and his family consume food like every other family in Hanoi. They also eat at cheap restaurants and hospital canteens. “And there is someone in my family who has cancer, so I share and deeply feel the concerns and worries of the people, the pain of families with people with cancer. I really want to try to contribute with the Ministry and the political system to meet the people's expectations,” the Minister said.

Recently, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in coordination with 35 provinces has built 280 safe food supply chains and sold them at 549 stores, of which 406 stores have been certified.

However, Minister Cao Duc Phat also admitted that in real life, not only vegetables and meat but also fish, bamboo shoots, shrimp paste and many other things have problems with food safety and hygiene, so it is true that the situation of unsafe food is very serious, as Chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Nguyen Thien Nhan reported the opinions of voters to the National Assembly and considered this a problem.

“We are also very aware of this. For the agricultural sector, for many years now, we have considered ensuring food safety and hygiene as the number 1 priority task. As you know, we have announced this very clearly to the entire sector because why? We understand that this is the expectation of the people, this issue is related to health and to the race,” the Minister affirmed.

Minister Cao Duc Phat said that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is committed to fully performing the assigned functions and tasks, and will try its best to soon improve the situation; The Minister himself also committed to working one more day, and making efforts to fulfill the people's expectations./.

According to the Communist Party of Vietnam