Poisoning tens of thousands of people, fined 6.5 million VND: Impossible. Impossible!

Information from a recent meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam with representatives of several ministries and sectors on food safety and hygiene showed that there is a new, strong determination of the Government on this issue. Notably, at this meeting, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat raised a number of quite serious issues regarding food safety and hygiene.

Minister Cao Duc Phat: Brutally poisoning tens of thousands of people, fined 6.5 million VND. Impossible. Impossible!.

Minister Cao Duc Phat: "Brutally poisoning tens of thousands of people, fined 6.5 million VND. Impossible. Impossible!".

8-10% of vegetable samples have pesticide residues exceeding the limit.

According to Minister Cao Duc Phat, with the current situation of food safety, the entire system and state apparatus, especially the local government apparatus, must take drastic measures to overcome it.

"We have some concerns about why, in some cases, when the Ministry's forces go to the locality and coordinate with the locality, they catch the criminals. While normally there, they don't do anything, and there are many things, not just illegal substances," he said.

According to Minister Cao Duc Phat, the current legal framework on food safety still has many problems, so the handling of violations is not strong enough. Some regulations such as Article 155 and Article 244 of the Penal Code have been amended, but many Decrees on administrative sanctions on food safety are still lenient.

"There are cases like the one where bananas were soaked in herbicide, sold to tens of thousands of people, and when the authorities discovered and caught them, they were fined 6.5 million VND. Such a barbaric act, poisoning so many people, was only fined 6.5 million VND and that's it. Impossible, impossible," Mr. Phat emphasized.

Meanwhile, there is a lack of policies to encourage those who do well. "For example, growing vegetables, if you want clean vegetables, you must definitely grow them according to good agricultural production processes (in English, called Vietgap standards). And to have clean vegetables, there needs to be policies to encourage farmers to apply those processes, to form chains, so that the vegetables can be brought to stores, so that our people know to buy and feel secure.

"We tested vegetables and found that 8-10% of them had pesticide residues exceeding the limit. But people cannot differentiate, so they think everything has problems. Or like meat, where there is only a few% but they cannot differentiate, people think everything has problems, creating more anxiety," said Minister Phat.

"Vietgap" vegetables: Only 1%, but people don't know

At the above meeting, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat boldly requested Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam to issue a document or a Prime Minister's Directive, not a notice of the meeting results on food safety issues, which would be strong enough to direct.

"First, we need to immediately state what the localities must do and what their responsibilities are, then the ministries. The agricultural sector requires strong direction, increased coordination and focus on some of the issues that people are most concerned about, such as banned substances in livestock farming. As for this issue, we should just kill it, get to the root of it in the shortest time possible to reassure people," said Mr. Phat.

Minister Cao Duc Phat once said he felt a chill down his spine when he saw bananas soaked in herbicide.

Minister Cao Duc Phat once said he felt "chills down his spine" when he saw bananas soaked in herbicide.

The second issue regarding the use and abuse of pesticides, according to Minister Cao Duc Phat, is a more difficult issue, involving millions of farming households and requires time but must still be addressed.

He said: "Currently, out of more than 800 thousand hectares of vegetables grown, only 7,000 hectares are produced according to Vietgap standards, less than 1%. Vietgap vegetables are also sold haphazardly, so people do not know what is "Gap" and what is not "Gap". So now we must focus on systematic work and organization."

The third issue, according to Minister Phat, is also very worrying, which is the use of preservatives and additives that need to be "rapidly addressed to create change."

"If anything, the slaughterhouse is another problem. At small slaughterhouses, the meat is clean when it is slaughtered, but when people take it home, it is contaminated with many types of bacteria due to the transportation and trading process. Meat displayed on wooden tables outside all year round is contaminated, not from the pig," he said.

According to Minister Phat, each year, the number of pigs raised and slaughtered is about 37 million, but occasionally catching a few will not solve any problem. The problem is to solve the root cause of the banned substance. "Our country does not produce Sabutamol but completely imports it. It can be imported officially or illegally, we have clues to eradicate it. The problem is determination to do it, determination to do it and we can do it," he added.

Spraying pesticides on vegetables. Photo by Tran Chau.

In the long term, according to Minister Cao Duc Phat, to ensure food safety, many things must be done resolutely. Even except for the propaganda stage, according to him, it is necessary to ensure effectiveness and standards to create changes in the behavior of consumers and producers on a scale of millions of people.

"We must go one step further and change the behavior of producers and food suppliers: Do not harm others and let consumers know to be vigilant," he said.

Regarding the law, Minister Cao Duc Phat suggested that the Ministry of Justice must quickly guide the Penal Code to promptly handle many violations. "The new Article 317 of the Penal Code (amended) stipulates that when a subject is caught using or trading in banned substances, he will be prosecuted according to the Penal Code like drugs, not waiting for someone to die or be bedridden as previously stipulated. Now we must guide and announce it to society," he proposed.

According to Dan Tri