Not yet determined to punish violations of food safety and hygiene in Nghe An

On January 10, the Department of Food Safety and Hygiene (Nghe An Department of Health) held a conference to summarize the work of 2019.

At the Conference, according to Mr. Pham Ngoc Quy - Head of the Food Safety Department, in recent times, the unit has achieved many positive results such as food poisoning prevention and control activities and foodborne diseases being regularly deployed, timely detection of potentially contaminated foods to promptly warn consumers; the number of food poisoning cases has a positive trend compared to the same period in 2018, especially there were no deaths.

Checking food safety at stalls at the festival. Photo: Thanh Chung

Districts, towns and cities have directed functional departments and coordinated with relevant units to promote a sense of responsibility, actively and proactively advise on the implementation of many effective solutions, contributing to ensuring food safety in the area; the staff participating in food safety management have made great efforts and worked with a high sense of responsibility.

Inspection and examination work has been strengthened and handled more drastically. In 2019, the number of establishments handling administrative violations in the field of food safety was 1,301 establishments with a total fine of 1,831,479,000 VND...

Conference scene. Photo: Tien Hung

However, there are also many shortcomings and limitations such as some Steering Committees and local authorities, especially at the commune, ward and town levels, still operate in a formal manner and are not really determined in directing and operating food safety management activities at the local level.

According to Mr. Quy, although food safety inspections have been organized according to regulations, when food safety violations are discovered, they have not been resolute in imposing penalties or warnings; violations mentioned in the inspection records have not been handled... Through inspection, examination and supervision, it can be seen that some districts, cities and towns are still having difficulties and confusion in implementing documents that are not in accordance with current regulations. Some districts have not promptly reported when poisoning occurs in the area.

The conference also identified the unit's common goal for the coming year as improving the effectiveness and efficiency of state management of food safety from the provincial level to communes, wards and towns, contributing to protecting the health and interests of consumers and meeting development requirements in the new situation. Controlling food safety risks throughout the entire food supply chain is established and effectively promoted. Minimizing food poisoning and food-borne diseases.