Let consumers monitor food together
Lawyer Chau Duy Nguyen - An Dang Law Office (Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association) - said that in the context of dirty food penetrating the market, traceability is an indispensable tool to protect the rights and health of consumers.
Exporting food origin is an important requirement in managing food quality and safety. Currently, the Law on Food Safety is a core legal document, stipulating that organizations, individuals, and food production and trading establishments must ensure safety conditions. In addition, there is the Law on Product and Commodity Quality and many guiding documents such as Decree 15/2018/ND-CP, Circular 25/2016 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, ... specifically regulating food safety conditions, responsibility for checking and tracing the origin of food," lawyer Nguyen analyzed.
However, according to lawyer Nguyen, there are still no clear legal regulations on the form and method of traceability, especially on packaging labels for consumers to easily monitor. This is a gap that needs to be filled with mandatory legal regulations.
"There should be transparent tools on food packaging for consumers and authorities to monitor quality. If unsafe food is detected, people can report it to the authorities for timely handling, emphasized lawyer Nguyen.
To give people peace of mind from the root to the dining table
Lawyer Nguyen believes that using QR codes to trace the origin of goods, especially food, is an inevitable trend. However, to promote efficiency, the law needs to have a unified, transparent data storage system, using digital technology such as QR codes on packaging.
According to lawyer Nguyen, if there is no synchronous database, no matter how modern the tool is, tracing is still only formal.
Original processing not only helps quickly determine the cause of food incidents, but also helps clearly identify responsibilities and recall products in a timely manner, minimizing damage. At the same time, this is also a mechanism to protect the reputation of genuine businesses, creating a clear line between clean and unsafe food.
An effective tracking system like a food journey camera - records the entire process from farming, processing to distribution. This is especially important, because if the origin and goods of food cannot be traced back, it will affect the health of consumers and will not require specific responsibility for handling, said lawyer Nguyen.
Need strong enough sanctions, clear enough tools
Currently, according to Clause 1, Article 26 of Decree 115/2018/ND-CP of the Government, the act of not storing or not storing sufficient information to trace the origin of food can be fined from 5 to 7 million VND. However, lawyer Nguyen said that this fine is too light, not enough to deter businesses that illegally profit billions of dong.
Legally, I recommend adding specific regulations on the origin traceability system, from the form of recording, storage, to data processing. At the same time, it is mandatory to use QR codes according to national standards. Along with that are strong enough sanctions to protect consumers' health, lawyer Nguyen proposed.
Lawyer Nguyen also shared that, in addition to perfecting legality, the role of communication and equipping consumers with knowledge to know how to use tools such as QR codes, and proactively exercise the right to know - to be safe in every daily meal.
