"I felt a chill down my spine."

"Reading about the facility soaking bananas in the herbicide 2,4D before selling them sent chills down my spine. This is incredibly cruel; I can't even imagine it."

This was shared by Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat at the conference on quality management and food safety of agricultural, forestry and aquatic products held on November 5th.

Vegetables and meat are found to contain residues of banned chemicals and antibiotics.

According to Mr. Nguyen Nhu Tiep, Director of the Department of Quality Management of Agricultural, Forestry and Fishery Products and Food Safety Supervision, in the first nine months of the year, 10.3% of vegetable samples had pesticide residues exceeding the permitted limits; 16% of meat samples contained Salmonella; 7.6% of meat samples had chemical and antibiotic residues exceeding the limits; and 1.01% of seafood samples were contaminated with prohibited/exceeded levels of chemicals and antibiotics.

Bananas soaked in herbicide.

Also during the first nine months of the year, the General Department and specialized departments under the Ministry organized 22 planned specialized inspection teams and 33 unscheduled inspection teams (reaching 119%). As a result, 1,198 administrative violation penalties were issued with a total amount of 21,868 billion VND. The main violations included producing agricultural materials outside the approved list/not meeting quality standards, violations of product labeling, and inadequate factory conditions.

A surprise inspection uncovered and penalized five companies for using banned substances in the production of animal feed and veterinary drugs.

The networks must be traced and prosecuted.

After hearing the report on the figures, Minister Cao Duc Phat said: Soaking bananas in herbicide and selling them to others to eat is not just an administrative violation, but a cruel act. We must fight against evil, we must be resolute; we cannot accept one person poisoning many others, including children.

"We have 1,000 samples testing positive for salbutamol, and from there we must trace the supply chains. They say they bought it from street vendors, which is unacceptable," the Minister emphasized.

23.6% of meat samples contained banned substances and antibiotic residues exceeding permissible limits.

Ms. Dinh Thi Phuong Khanh, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Long An province, also stated that the fight against banned substances must be like the fight against narcotics, requiring criminal prosecution and not being left "halfway" like this.

According to Ms. Khanh, tracing the origin of livestock is currently very difficult. In addition, there is a group of traders secretly pressuring farmers to use their products because the purchase price is usually 2,000-5,000 VND/kg higher.

However, current penalties are not strong enough to deter violations. For example, Decree 119 stipulates fines of only 5-10 million VND for households and 10-20 million VND for farms for violations involving the use of banned substances. Ms. Khanh believes that the use of banned substances should be included in the revised Criminal Code.

"The biggest problem right now is the regulation that only takes action if food causes 10-20% health damage. Nowadays, you consume banned substances every day, and the residue accumulates gradually; it's not like you die immediately after eating. Should we wait until people die before tracing what they ate and where it came from? Action must be taken thoroughly. When banned substances are detected, criminal charges must be filed; we can't wait until people get sick and die before taking action. That would be very hard on the people," Ms. Khanh emphasized.

At the conference, Colonel Tran Trong Binh, Deputy Director of Department C49 (Ministry of Public Security), also presented a shocking figure: "In 2014 alone, the number of cancer cases reached 150,000-200,000 people, and the number of deaths from cancer was 82,000. Of these, 75-95% of cases were due to environmental factors and food safety issues."

Colonel Binh also argued that violations of food safety regulations should be criminalized instead of being subject to administrative penalties as before.

"We have arrested individuals who purchased banned substances such as formaldehyde for the production of pho noodles, borax for pork sausage, and urea for fish, but due to regulations, we still cannot prosecute them. Waiting for these banned substances to cause death before constituting a crime is impossible," Colonel Binh said.

Organize a weekly safe agricultural product fair.

While the Hanoi Department of Agriculture and Rural Development was reporting on the food safety situation in the area, highlighting achievements such as Hanoi not detecting the use of banned substances, numerous directives, and commitments to safe production in many places, the Minister of Agriculture interrupted: "What consumers care about is where to buy clean vegetables? Who certifies them? What they need is safe meat and vegetables, not a multitude of regulations."

At the conference, the Minister expressed: "Reading the information about establishments soaking bananas in the herbicide 2,4D before selling them sent chills down my spine. This is an extremely cruel act; I cannot imagine it." He stressed the need for decisive action against the use of banned substances; detection and traceability of origin are crucial.

Minister Phat said that next week the Ministry will work with businesses that have established safety standards to issue certifications, publicizing to the public the addresses of places with safe food as well as signs to identify truly clean products. Initially, this will be implemented in the two major cities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Deputy Minister Vu Van Tam also requested that Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, from now until Tet, must point out to consumers a few places where they can buy safe agricultural products with guaranteed certification labels. Hanoi and other provinces must organize fairs selling safe agricultural products and food at least once or twice a week.

According to Infonet