Food safety - difficult to prevent!

(Baonghean) - Using banned substances in animal husbandry, pesticide residues on vegetables and tubers; loss of food safety in the production, business, consumption and processing of food are "hot" issues that voters are concerned about, reflect and make many recommendations in meetings of National Assembly and People's Council deputies.

General situation

According to statistics from the health sector, 92% of food poisoning cases are caused by excessive amounts of microorganisms contained in food. These include green vegetables and ripe fruits that have been sprayed with growth stimulants and pesticides right before being put on the market. Chemicals used to preserve meat, fish, and fruit are not allowed to be used.

Check food safety and hygiene of street food.

Mr. Nguyen Van Thang - Deputy Head of the Market Management Department, Department of Industry and Trade said: "Since the end of 2014, the department has inspected 518 cases and handled 414 violations, mainly related to food. The department has seized 5,612 kg of animal products, 3,500 kg of animal fat, 12,240 poultry, 355 kg of various dry seeds, and 80 kg of processed foods of unknown origin."

In fact, food sources are entering the market every day through many different channels and the arrests by the authorities are like a drop in the ocean because of the thin force and lack of coordination between the authorities and local authorities.

Regarding this issue, Dr. Dao Trong Dung, Head of the Nghe An Food Safety and Hygiene Department, shared: Currently, there are many shortcomings in the inspection and detection of violations in food production, trading, processing and consumption. The functional sector cannot control it all, and business people have many ways to circumvent the law. Consumers are both victims and unintentional contributors to violations when most of them lack knowledge in consumption.

Detecting foods contaminated with viruses, chemical residues, and food safety violations through color identification is currently very difficult and costly. For example, in the case of detecting unusual red meat in a household in Ha Huy Tap Ward (Vinh City) on the occasion of the Lunar New Year 2015, the Food Safety and Hygiene Department had to send samples to Korea for bacterial identification testing... The remaining problem is that local authorities have not yet taken part in ensuring food safety and hygiene in their areas.

Currently, the inspection and examination of the market and food production and trading establishments is still considered only the tip of the iceberg and not thorough. While food reaches consumers through many stages, the most important of which is to ensure quality and safety starting from the production stage. So, in the production and trading stage, what factors cause food safety loss?

From pesticide residues in vegetables...

In fact, one of the factors that causes a high risk of food poisoning and harm to human health is pesticide residues on vegetables and fruits exceeding the permitted threshold. According to information from all levels and sectors, pesticide residue control is currently limited, only implemented in a probabilistic manner, and when vegetable samples are discovered to have pesticide indexes exceeding the threshold, the penalty is only at the level of recommendation, administrative penalty... so re-offending can occur immediately afterwards.

As a person directly involved in the sampling and testing, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Binh - Head of the Inspection Department of the Plant Protection Department said: "The first difficulty is that when taking samples in the field, farmers may have only sprayed pesticides for 4 days, so there are still residues, while it takes up to 7 days to completely remove the residues, and we cannot conclude whether farmers have cut vegetables to sell at the market after the 4th day. Second, when taking samples, farmers often prevent them, ask for permission not to buy, do not sell, and when asked about the last day of pesticide spraying, the answer is not true to reality."

In fact, vegetable production is mostly spontaneous from households, fragmented, small-scale without overall planning; there is still a phenomenon that one household uses chemical fertilizers, pesticides, fertilization, and spraying to make vegetables grow well, then other households also learn from it, calculating how to achieve higher efficiency. People are only interested in output and beautiful appearance, but food safety is not taken seriously.

To banned substances in animal feed

Mr. Ho Viet Nam in Nam Dan town, owner of a pig farm with 130 pigs and 30 breeding sows, said: I mix animal feed from many types of factories with distributors in the area; I try to find which type makes pigs grow quickly, fat and beautiful, then I feed it to them... Honestly, I don't know about banned substances in livestock farming; if they are on the market, they must have been thoroughly tested and their quality is guaranteed.

Illustration.

Mr. Ho Van Cuong, the owner of a farm in Hamlet 1, Hung Tan Commune, shared: His farm raises 100 - 120 pigs per batch, and the cost of buying feed is about 250 million VND. Each bag of bran, if bought through an agent, will cost 25,000 - 30,000 VND/bag, so each batch of pigs will lose 18 - 20 million VND, significantly reducing profits. However, if the price of live pigs is lower than 40,000 VND/kg, small-scale farmers will suffer losses. Therefore, finding a source of animal feed for the shortest breeding cycle and highest efficiency is the top concern of Mr. Cuong and other farm owners in Hung Tan Commune.

In fact, the control of animal feed sources is carried out quite strictly by the Animal Husbandry Department - Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, from the feed collection cycle to checking the list of feed in the sampled area. Recently, the inspection team has inspected and monitored prohibited substances in animal feed in 6 districts and towns, collected 82 samples and checked 132 prohibited indicators in animal husbandry.

The analysis results showed that 1 sample was positive for Salbutamol (the main ingredient in asthma medication in humans, if this substance exceeds the permissible threshold many times, it will cause cardiovascular risks to users). The team also inspected production and business conditions, checked labels, packaging, weight, took 66 samples of industrial food for quality analysis, the results showed that 1/66 companies violated, 2/40 companies violated labels.

Mr. Luu Cong Hoa - Head of the Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine - Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said: "Although the inspection work is quite regular, the team can only carry out the suspected cases in a probability manner; but believe that in Nghe An, there are no favorable conditions for the circulation of banned substances in animal husbandry because farmers always put the quality of livestock first. However, it is inevitable that small animal feed companies will offer their products to households; then if people provide information to local authorities and the authorities request samples for testing, the department will conduct the inspection immediately".

Thus, unlabeled, floating foods that people whisper to mix into food to help livestock gain weight quickly, create color, create leanness to increase the price of livestock products are still possible. In order to strictly control food in households' barns, the leaders of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development affirmed that it is necessary to have a plant protection and quarantine team. Districts must strengthen inspection work, take responsibility for the quality of inspection and supervision. Moreover, farmers participating in production and livestock farming need to be aware that the value of products must be linked to consumer trust...

Thanh Nga - Thanh Chung