Food safety assessment: Taking it lightly or lacking expertise?

(Baonghean) -Although the issue of ensuring food safety and hygiene is becoming increasingly urgent, currently, food safety management in many localities in the province has not received much attention; the human resources for food safety management are still thin and lack professional knowledge; coordination between localities and provincial agencies is still limited.

» Is there a problem with Vinh City's food safety inspection capacity?

The interdisciplinary inspection team on food safety of Nghe An province inspected the Vu Cao Cuong tofu production, trading and processing facility in block 14, Le Loi ward (Vinh city). Photo: Thanh Son.

Widespread violations

Carrying out the task of inspecting food safety during the festive season, from January 2017 up to now, the Nghe An Province Food Safety Interdisciplinary Inspection Team has inspected many food production, trading and processing establishments in the area, as well as worked with many food safety steering committees of districts, cities and towns in the province.

Through inspection, it was found that violations were quite common. For example, the inspection team inspected 6 establishments in Vinh city (3 establishments under the management of the Health sector, 2 establishments under the management of the Industry and Trade sector, 1 establishment under the management of the Agriculture and Rural Development sector) and found that 5/6 establishments violated food safety regulations.

Specifically, on the afternoon of January 5, the Interdisciplinary Team inspected Quang Phien confectionery store, located at Lot 139 - Long Chau New Urban Area, Vinh Tan Ward (Vinh City), and discovered that the store did not have a certificate of food safety eligibility, employee health certificates, food safety knowledge certificates, no measures to prevent and control harmful insects and animals, improper decanting, and some goods of unknown origin that were past their expiration date;

On February 28, during an inspection of two food service businesses on Le Mao extended street, Vinh Tan ward (Vinh city), namely Hieu Hue restaurant and Nha Que Quan restaurant, the restaurant was found to lack a food sample storage cabinet; On March 8, during an inspection of Hoa Huong Son goat meat restaurant owned by Mr. Ho Van Hoa located right in front of Vinh Station gate, Truong Chinh street, Vinh city, the restaurant was found to not meet environmental hygiene conditions such as not separating the toilets and other sources of pollution...

On March 10, the interdisciplinary team drew up a record to suspend the operation of Vu Cao Cuong tofu production facility, block 14, Le Loi ward, Vinh city for 1 month from the date of inspection so that the facility can correct its mistakes due to the facility not ensuring food safety during the production process...

The kitchen area at Hoa Huong Son restaurant (Truong Chinh street, Vinh city) is damp, dusty, and has very poor hygiene conditions. Photo: Thanh Son

At the above 5 violating establishments, the Provincial Interdisciplinary Team also discovered many errors in the state management of the Vinh City People's Committee. Regarding Quang Phien confectionery store, in 2016, the store was fined many times by the Vinh City inspection team, but no inspection team has yet provided instructions for the facility to do the right thing. The store owner said: "Each team gives different instructions, leading to the store not knowing where to get the certificate."

Regarding 2 food service businesses on Le Mao extended street, Vinh Tan ward, namely Hieu Hue restaurant and Nha Que Quan (with many meals), Vinh City Health Department "misunderstood" that they were street food restaurants, so they issued certificates of qualified food safety facilities, even though they did not have sample storage cabinets and did not ensure one-way procedures. In addition, the Certificate of knowledge on food safety and hygiene was issued in a haphazard manner when Certificate No. 041 was issued on March 23, 2016, and Certificate No. 042 was issued on March 18, 2016.

Regarding the Hoa Huong Son goat restaurant, the delegation discovered the business registration certificate first issued by the Department of Finance and Planning on April 4, 2016; the food safety qualified facility certificate was issued by the Department of Health on December 28, 2015. Thus, the facility that had not registered for business was granted the certificate. The minutes of food safety qualified assessment for the Hoa Huong Son restaurant established by the Department of Health on December 21, 2015 stated: "The total area of ​​the facility is 354 m2. The area of ​​the food processing and food distribution area is 120 m2. The location is airy, well-ventilated, the facilities are solid, clean, and beautiful...".

However, in reality, the total area of ​​the facility is not more than 120 m2; the total area of ​​the food processing and distribution area is not enough 10 m2; the facility is makeshift and seriously unsanitary. This record has been denounced by Vinh City Medical Center as a fake record. Mr. Le Van Sy - Deputy Director of Vinh City Medical Center said: "Previously, the assessment and issuance of certificates of food safety qualified facilities were carried out by the City Medical Center.

Since July 2015, the Vinh City People's Committee has assigned this task to the Vinh City Health Department. Since then, the Health Department has never invited a representative of the professional agency, the Medical Center, to the appraisal team. However, the names of doctors from the Medical Center are always included in the appraisal records of the facilities, even though they were not involved. This situation has been reported to the Vinh City People's Committee twice by the Center, but it still continues."

Regarding the Vu Cao Cuong tofu production facility, the Economic Department, Vinh City People's Committee issued a certificate of food safety registration without authority when it misunderstood that the processing of bean powder belonged to the industry and trade sector, while the authority to issue this certificate belonged to the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Quality Management, Nghe An Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Due to negligence or lack of expertise?

The above shortcomings in food safety management have been acknowledged by Mr. Tran Van Son - Vice Chairman of Vinh City People's Committee: After granting food safety certificates to food production, trading and processing establishments, the departments did not promptly inspect and correct violations; and also had a lenient and lenient attitude in granting certificates as well as making false records. Vinh City People's Committee will immediately take corrective action.

According to the Provincial Food Safety Inspection Team, the errors in state management of food safety are also due to the lack of coordination between the city's functional departments and provincial authorities to receive guidance on professional knowledge. Even the functional units of the Vinh City People's Committee have not coordinated with each other.

Mr. Tran Quang Lam - Head of the Economic Department (standing in charge of food safety of Vinh city) said: The force performing the task of ensuring food safety is still small and weak in expertise. It is recommended that departments, branches, and provincial authorities regularly guide and train professional knowledge and skills on food safety management, inspection, and examination for the city's steering committee as well as wards and communes.

Taking food safety issues lightly and lacking professional knowledge in food safety management are the causes of errors in managing food processing and trading establishments. In February 2017, the provincial Food Safety Inspection and Supervision Team conducted a post-inspection of two food businesses in Quynh Phuong Ward (one week after the Hoang Mai Town delegation inspected), and discovered that the two businesses had not corrected previous violations such as not having a health certificate, not receiving training, not keeping samples and not ensuring food safety conditions. In addition, the provincial Food Safety Inspection and Supervision Team also discovered many actual errors that the town delegation did not detect such as expired food, unknown origin...

Working in Nam Dan district, the provincial interdisciplinary inspection team discovered that the district inspection team made a number of mistakes such as recording many errors but only handling one error; not providing any form of mitigation but imposing fines below the framework; the district inspection team used rapid directional test samples to detect borax but immediately reported the borax ratio in the probe and the test results in the report. Meanwhile, the correct procedure to get the borax index is to send the probe and test results to qualified testing labs for testing.

Mr. Tran Huu Tien - Deputy Director of Nghe An Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Head of Nghe An province's interdisciplinary inspection team, affirmed: "The law and regulations on food safety are clear, localities should not and cannot let unqualified officials perform management tasks. Districts, cities and towns need to regularly exchange information so that provincial-level specialized agencies on food safety can guide, support and answer any unclear questions. When departments, branches and specialized agencies organize training courses and knowledge enhancement, localities are requested to send officials to participate in serious learning"./.

Thanh Son