Hanoi tightens food safety inspection ahead of Tet holiday

Hanoi has set up a cross-functional team to conduct inspection on food safety in the city ahead of the Lunar New Year or Tet holiday.

Cross-functional team takes sample in a company in Tay Ho District. Photo: Kinhtedothi

The team, led by Dr Tran Van Chung, deputy director of the municipal Department of Health, started its mission on January 12 in Tay Ho District where more than 1,600 food and beverage production establishments and restaurants are located.

The team has examined food safety and hygiene at 182 establishments, fined one establishment that breached hygiene procedures.

When working with local authorities, Dr Chung asked them to focus on goods of high demand for Tet and facilities at risk of unsafe practices, as well as supermarkets and wet markets.

Head of Hanoi’s Food Administration Division Tran Ngoc Tu said this year’s inspection focuses on hygiene procedures, quality and origin of food for Tet holiday, and precautionary measures against Covid-19 at food production and service facilities.

The body has asked establishments to disinfect regularly, screening temperature of customers, and preventive measures against the pandemic.

In the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s 2019 ranking, Hanoi topped localities nationwide in terms of the management of food safety over agro-forestry-fishery products.

In a research title “Consumer concern about food safety in Hanoi, Vietnam” by Thanh Mai Ha, Shamim Shakur, and Kim Hang Pham Do, customers express concerns over three factors namely pesticide residues, food preservatives, and hormone in livestock.

With a limited capacity to self-supply food and weaker social and kinship networks, urban consumers’ concerns over food safety, therefore, was higher than their rural counterparts, the authors said in the research.