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 been focused on; 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.

Rampant violations

Carrying out the task of inspecting food safety during the festival season, from January 2017 to present, 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 the result was that 5/6 establishments violated food safety regulations.

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

On February 28, 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 discovered that the restaurant lacked a food sample storage cabinet; On March 8, 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 discovered that the restaurant did not ensure environmental hygiene conditions such as not separating the toilet 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 for the facility to correct the problem 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 5 above-mentioned violating establishments, the provincial interdisciplinary delegation also discovered many shortcomings in the state management work 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 delegation, but no inspection delegation had yet provided instructions for the establishment to do it correctly. The store owner said: "Each delegation gave different instructions, leading to the store not knowing where to get the certificate."

With 2 food service businesses on Le Mao extended street, Vinh Tan ward, namely Hieu Hue restaurant and Nha Que Quan (with many meals), the Vinh City Health Department "misunderstood" that they were street food restaurants, so they issued certificates of food safety eligibility, even though they did not have a sample storage cabinet and did not ensure a one-way process. In addition, the Certificate of knowledge on food safety and hygiene was issued in a chaotic 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 appraisal records of the facilities always include the names of doctors from the Medical Center even though they were not allowed to participate. 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 of Vinh City People's Committee issued a certificate of food safety registration without authority when it misunderstood that the production of bean powder belongs to the industry and trade sector, while the authority to issue this certificate belongs 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 issuing food safety certificates to food production, trading and processing establishments, departments did not promptly inspect and correct violations; there was also a light-hearted and lenient attitude in issuing certificates as well as making false records. Vinh City People's Committee will immediately take corrective action.

According to the provincial Food Safety Interdisciplinary Inspection Team, the shortcomings 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 the management of 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 other actual errors that the town delegation did not detect, such as expired food, unknown origin, etc.

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; there was no form of mitigation but the penalty was below the framework; the district inspection team used rapid 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 have borax indexes 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 food safety agencies can guide, support and clarify unclear issues. When departments, branches and specialized agencies organize training courses and knowledge enhancement, localities are requested to send officials to participate in the training seriously"./.

Thanh Son