Nghe An establishes interdisciplinary teams to inspect product groups consumed a lot during Tet and festivals.
(Baonghean.vn) - As the Lunar New Year approaches, people's demand for food consumption increases, leading to an increase in the production, trading and transportation of food items. The risk of food insecurity during this time is very high.
The Lunar New Year of Giap Thin 2024 is approaching; then comes the festival season across the province. Lunar New Year and the festival season are the times of high food consumption in the year, especially foods such as meat, fish, eggs, cakes, candies, wine, beer, soft drinks, oilseeds, etc. The risk of food insecurity during this time is very high.
In order to strengthen food safety assurance in production, processing, trading, and importing food during the peak of the Lunar New Year and the festival season, on January 2, 2024, the People's Committee of Nghe An province issued Plan No. 01/KH-UBND on inter-sectoral inspection of food safety in 2024 in Nghe An province. Then, on January 4, 2024, the People's Committee of Nghe An province issued Decision No. 10/QD-UBND on inspection of compliance with regulations on ensuring food safety during the Lunar New Year and the Spring Festival season - 2024 in Nghe An province.
Doctor Pham Ngoc Quy - Head of the Department of Food Safety and Hygiene of Nghe An province said: With the set criteria of minimizing food poisoning cases during the Lunar New Year and the Spring Festival season of 2024; Nghe An will establish interdisciplinary inspection teams from the provincial to communal levels, strengthen inspection of product groups consumed a lot during Tet and festivals with high risk factors; at the same time, mobilize maximum communication channels to disseminate legal regulations on food safety as well as knowledge in choosing, preserving, processing and consuming food to the people.
The inspection subjects are establishments producing, processing, trading, importing food, providing food services, street food, focusing on establishments producing and trading food items used a lot during the Lunar New Year and festivals such as meat and meat products, beer, wine, alcoholic beverages, soft drinks, cakes, jams, candies, vegetables, tubers, fruits, food additives and food service establishments.
In particular, provincial delegations focus on inspecting food production, processing, trading, and importing establishments, large wholesalers, wholesale markets, supermarkets, and commercial centers. For small and medium-sized food establishments and food service establishments, inspections are mainly carried out at district and commune levels.
For food production and trading establishments, the inspection team conducts inspections of compliance with food safety laws; focuses on inspecting the conditions of food production and processing establishments; food safety conditions of food service establishments; quality and safety of food products; origin; registration of declarations, self-declarations of products; labeling; advertising; sampling for testing...
Through inspection, timely detection and prevention of violations of food safety, preventing unsafe food, food of unknown origin, and smuggled food from circulating in the market, preventing and limiting food poisoning cases due to consumption of fake food, unsafe food, and poor quality food to improve the quality of health protection and care for the people.
The province currently has about 15,000 food production, processing and trading establishments. Currently, the provincial level has basically completed the issuance of food hygiene and safety certificates, while the district and commune levels have not been able to effectively control them. In addition, there are still thousands of establishments operating freely, not registered, not managed in terms of facilities, food safety standards, environmental hygiene and infection prevention and control.
The inspection, detection and handling of administrative violations of food safety at the district and commune levels are not strict, so the number of violating establishments has not changed positively, especially street food businesses and mobile cooking services... Some consumers do not really care about their own health and their families' health, so they still buy and use unsafe food products. For the purpose of profit, some establishments produce and trade dirty, poor quality food, of unknown origin... causing harm to the health of consumers.
MEveryone needs to absolutely follow the 10 golden principles of safe food preparation: Choose safe food; Cook food thoroughly; Eat immediately after cooking; Store cooked food carefully; Re-cook food thoroughly; Avoid cross-contamination between cooked and raw food; Wash hands thoroughly before preparing food and before eating; Keep food preparation surfaces clean; Cover food to avoid insects and other animals; Use safe clean water sources..
