Many large businesses in Nghe An were fined for violating food hygiene.

There are many violations.

In order to ensure health and prevent food poisoning for people during the Lunar New Year, the People's Committee of Nghe An province issued Decision No. 5325/QD-UBND to establish an interdisciplinary inspection team to inspect the implementation of food safety regulations before, during and after the Lunar New Year and the Spring Festival season of 2020 in Nghe An province.

After nearly 2 weeks, the team inspected the compliance with food safety regulations at more than 20 food production, processing, trading and catering establishments. Thereby, more than half of the inspected establishments were found to have violated regulations, mainly food processors not wearing hats or masks; not implementing the 3-step food inspection regime; not implementing legal regulations on food sample storage; storage areas and warehouses without adequate shelves, racks, nameplates, regulations, procedures and hygiene regimes; using solid waste collection tools without lids; trading in restricted goods without a business license (alcohol products)... The inspection team drew up a record of fines totaling more than 60 million VND.

Inspection team at Big C Vinh.

Many large establishments were fined, such as Dien Chau General Trading Joint Stock Company, Block 4, Dien Chau Town; Phu An Trading Joint Stock Company, No. 1 Tran Phu, Vinh City; Lam Giang Restaurant Business Household, No. 35 Le Van Mien, Vinh City; Tai Loc Supermarket, Dong Son Hamlet, Do Luong District; Tran Ngoc Trang Business Household, No. 144 Nguyen Van Cu, Vinh City; Hoang Huy Phuong, Tan Hai Block, Quynh Phuong Ward, Hoang Mai Town; Hoan Hoi Restaurant Facility, Hamlet 4, Nam Nghia Commune, Nam Dan District; Vo Thi Tu Business Household, Hamlet 7, Nghi Phu Commune, Vinh City; Quang Ha Restaurant Business Household, Ngu Phuc Hamlet, Hung Loc Commune, Vinh City.

Mr. Vo Minh Tuan - Deputy Chief Inspector of the Department of Industry and Trade, Deputy Head of the Interdisciplinary Inspection Team said that as the Lunar New Year approaches, people's demand for buying and using food will increase, businesses will bring to the market many food products, candies, Tet jams... of unknown origin, as well as mixed in floating products of unknown origin.

The business "The World of Japanese Goods" on Le Loi Street was fined 7.5 million for selling alcohol without a license.

“We will step up inspection and examination activities, strictly handle establishments that violate the law, and at the same time, propagate to food production, processing and trading establishments to strictly comply with regulations on ensuring food safety; recommend that when going shopping for Tet, people should be “smart consumers”, go to reputable establishments, choose products with clear origin and expiry date… to ensure health, prevent food poisoning for themselves and their families,” said Mr. Tuan.

Many ways to cope

Although the industry has repeatedly promoted the issue in the past, in reality, there are still many business owners who “take lightly” the issue of food hygiene and safety. Although these establishments have been punished many times.

On the last day of the year, we followed the interdisciplinary inspection team to work at a food business in Hong Son ward, Vinh city. Although the team had announced the decision to inspect, a man rushed in, grabbed the reporter's camera, and loudly cursed the working team before chasing them out of the store. It is known that a year ago, this facility was also fined for violating food hygiene and safety.

Despite the explanation, the owner of this business still refused to let them in for inspection. The working group had to invite the People's Committee of the ward, the Hong Son Ward Police and the Economic Department of the Vinh City People's Committee. At this time, the owner of the business cooperated and agreed to let the team inspect. The team made a record of all the rice bags printed in foreign languages ​​without the import sub-name. At the same time, they invited the owner of the business to the Hong Son Ward People's Committee to work and present the necessary documents... according to the reporter's records, the rice bags of this business were placed directly on the ground (on a tarpaulin), according to regulations, there must be shelves placed away from the ground, away from the wall...

At this time, many dry food items, packaged food items such as cakes, candies, jams of all kinds are sold in traditional markets with a wide variety of types and designs, including many types of cakes, jams, candies, sold by weight, without packaging, labels from family factories with verbal assurances "rest assured about the quality". In addition, most of the livestock and poultry meat items sold in traditional markets today do not have labels or information about their origin.

Vinh market traders hurriedly put up labels when they saw the inspection team. Photo: QA

A few days ago, the Market Management Department coordinated with Vinh City Police and Vinh Market Management Board to inspect the stalls selling cakes, candies, and jams for Tet at Vinh Market. The inspection process showed that many types of cakes and candies sold here still did not have labels to prove their origin, especially candies, bird's nest candies, and jams for Tet... even though the authorities had regularly warned them beforehand. When they saw the authorities, the traders responded by hastily taking labels to stick on their goods. After conducting the inspection, the authorities drew up a record and fined 5 traders for selling goods without labels to prove their origin, and confiscated 5 tons of candy for destruction.

Reality over the years has shown that many food production, processing and trading establishments take advantage of the increased demand for Tet consumption to provide consumers with foods of unknown origin, smuggled foods; foods using additives and preservatives not in accordance with the permitted list; spoiled, moldy, expired foods; foods processed without ensuring food safety and hygiene;... In addition, many housewives lack knowledge about food safety, do not know how to choose foods, process and preserve foods properly, leading to food poisoning.

It is forecasted that during the Lunar New Year 2020, purchasing power will increase by about 20%. The increased purchasing power of food is concentrated in products such as meat, fish, eggs; cakes, candies and beverages. Therefore, the issue of ensuring food safety needs to be tightened so that everyone can have a happy and healthy Tet.