Lesson 1: Food poisoning - causes and consequences

(Baonghean)In recent times, food safety and hygiene issues in the province have received attention from authorities and the public. However, the number of cases, the number of people affected, and the severity of food poisoning continue to increase every year. Why?

According to statistics from the Food Safety and Hygiene Department, in 2010, there were 9 food poisoning incidents in our province, affecting 149 people, including 2 deaths. In 2011, there were 11 incidents, affecting 251 people, notably a serious mass food poisoning incident at HaiVina Company in Nam Dan, which resulted in over 100 people being hospitalized. Also in 2011, the Nghe An Market Management Team discovered and handled 7 food safety and hygiene violations. Notably, the Environmental Police Team of Vinh City Police arrested and destroyed 600 kg of beef tails and tendons of unknown origin, stored in the freezer of a family running a restaurant on Le Hong Phong Street... These statistics once again show that the issue of food safety and hygiene in Nghe An is becoming increasingly serious, and that inadequate food management, inspection, and control will cause many negative consequences for consumers.

Food products currently sold on the market are divided into 19 categories. In principle, all products released to the market must have their quality declared, be labeled, and have their origin clearly stated. However, for various reasons, only a few hundred products have their quality declared – a very modest percentage. Most people still choose distribution channels through traditional markets. Theoretically, this channel is not as safe as products sold in supermarkets because the products often lack origin information, labels, and proper storage before reaching consumers.

Leaders of the Department of Health inspect the emergency treatment of patients at Nam Dan General Hospital following the food poisoning incident on December 8, 2011, at HaiVina Company.

Currently in our province, the machinery and equipment for diagnosing and testing food before it is released to the market do not meet the needs. Mr. Duong Tat Thang, Director of the Regional Veterinary Agency III – the unit managing veterinary work in the six provinces of North Central Vietnam – stated: Investing in a diagnostic and testing system that meets standards to help with product quality control before market release, similar to what the Regional Veterinary Agency III and Ho Chi Minh City have done, would require hundreds of billions of dong. This doesn't even include the costly training of personnel for inspection, diagnosis, and testing. This is causing significant difficulties in inspecting and handling substandard products before they are released to the market. Due to these objective and subjective reasons, detecting unsafe and unhygienic food is very difficult. Only when food poisoning incidents occur do the authorities take samples and send them to the Regional Veterinary Agency III or other units outside the province for testing and diagnosis.

Clearly, to have a clean product, it must be "clean from farm to table" in a closed-loop cycle. This requires close coordination at each stage to ensure each step is carried out safely. However, in our country's relatively backward production system, achieving a closed-loop cycle in the food supply chain that meets the required criteria is extremely difficult, if not impossible. The current state of production, processing, and consumption, coupled with lax and overlapping management, is the reason for the increasing number of food poisoning cases and their escalating severity. The province has focused on implementing many production models that ensure standards in agricultural production to provide consumers with clean, high-quality products, but even after many years of implementation, production models following VietGAP standards still face many difficulties.

(To be continued)

Vo Van Dung