Need to boycott dirty food
(Baonghean.vn) - To ensure food safety during the Lunar New Year 2018, authorities and localities in the province have been strengthening inspection and control. At the same time, people are advised to be wise in choosing food, boycotting and fighting against "dirty" food.
Concern about dirty food
This concern is well-founded when "bad news" is constantly being posted everywhere. Ms. Le Huyen Linh, 36 years old, in Le Loi ward, Vinh city, expressed her concern: "Reading the newspaper, I saw that on January 6-7, in Hanoi, 1.2 tons of rotten dried organs and 11 tons of melted and smelly candy were seized; in Ho Chi Minh City, 2 containers containing nearly 30 tons of pork and beef of unknown origin were discovered; Thanh Hoa seized more than 1 ton of buffalo products in the process of decomposition, ready to be smuggled into the market... Dirty food is everywhere. I am very worried about my family's daily meals, especially during Tet."
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The provincial interdisciplinary inspection team inspected food production, processing and trading establishments during the 2018 Lunar New Year. Photo: Thanh Son |
Mr. Nguyen Van Thang - Deputy Head of Nghe An Market Management Department said: Near Tet is the peak time for traders to take advantage of illegal business. Food safety and hygiene can completely happen. In the same period last year, during the Dinh Dau Lunar New Year and the 2017 Spring Festival, the whole province discovered 3,285 food production, processing and trading establishments violating the law. The total fine was 814,760,000 VND.
Strengthen inspection and handling
To help alleviate concerns about dirty food, Nghe An provincial authorities have been strengthening activities to monitor, inspect, and prevent food that does not meet quality standards. On January 4, the Provincial People's Committee issued a Plan to implement food safety assurance activities for the Lunar New Year and the 2018 Spring Festival season. Then, on January 5, the Provincial People's Committee also issued a Decision to establish an interdisciplinary inspection team to inspect the implementation of food safety regulations in the area.
The inspection viewpoint is to strictly handle violations. If violations are found to have criminal elements, the inspection force will recommend that the police intervene to strictly handle them. According to the new regulations, from January 1, 2018, the use of banned substances and banned antibiotics in food will be transferred to the investigation agency for handling.
Mr. Duong Van Hung - Head of the Nghe An Department of Agricultural, Forestry and Fishery Product Quality Management said: "The unit has increased its human resources and frequency of inspections right at the source. The scope of inspections includes craft villages, production facilities, warehouses, and food displays to limit the contamination from the beginning before it reaches the market."
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| The interdisciplinary team inspected a candy stall at Vinh market. Photo: Thanh Son |
Along with inspection and examination work, socio-political organizations have also strongly participated in propaganda, raising awareness and knowledge of food safety and hygiene. A typical example is the campaign and contest "Residential areas say no to dirty food production" in 2017 with the participation of 5,899 residential areas (belonging to 480 communes, wards and towns) in the province.
However, despite these efforts, in reality there are still production and business establishments that, for profit, disregard legal regulations and release dirty food into the market.
The reason for this situation is that the inspection, examination and post-inspection work at the grassroots level of wards, communes and towns has not yet met the requirements; inspection, examination and punishment are still lenient, only reminding but not handling. On the other hand, the spirit of fighting and denouncing food safety violations of many people is not high.
Accordingly, throughout the year, Nghe An Market Management Department only received 5 calls via hotline reporting counterfeit goods trading, food safety violations... The number of calls to the Department of Health and the provincial Food Safety Department was also insignificant.
Doctor Hoang Quoc Son - Deputy Head of the Provincial Food Safety and Hygiene Department said: Inspection and examination of the market and food production and trading establishments is only a "necessary" solution, not a "sufficient" one, only stopping at solving the tip of the problem and not being able to thoroughly solve the root cause.
The long-term, sustainable solution must still be to encourage the development and replication of closed clean food models from production to consumption. To do that, the role of smart consumers in choosing clean food, boycotting and fighting against “dirty” food is very important.
