The Ministry of Health received a petition from voters in Hanoi city on food safety assurance. Specifically:
Completing regulations on food safety for collective kitchens, ready-to-eat meals, food suppliers...;
Strengthen post-inspection, traceability, strictly handle violations and clearly define the responsibility of heads of educational institutions, agencies, and units when food safety incidents occur.
Research and build a more centralized management model or clearly stipulate the ministry's focal point and the head of the locality responsible; apply really heavy criminal sanctions instead of just administrative sanctions for acts of using banned substances, over-conservation chemicals, and fake and poor quality food.
The Ministry of Health said it is coordinating with ministries and sectors to improve regulations on food safety, strengthen post-inspection, traceability and research a unified management model from central to local levels.
More specific regulations on collective meal offering activities
According to the Ministry of Health, regulations on food safety for collective kitchens, ready-to-eat establishments, food production and street food business have been stipulated in the Law on Food Safety and related decrees.
People's Committees at all levels are responsible for managing collective kitchens and street food in the area. At schools, educational and health agencies coordinate supervision. According to Directive 38/CT-TTg, heads of educational institutions, agencies, and units organizing collective kitchens are responsible for food safety at their units.
The Ministry of Health is presiding over the development of the draft Law on Food Safety (amended), which is expected to specify the activities of providing collective meals, from facilities conditions, raw materials, direct processors to saving samples, incident handling and traceability.
The Ministry of Education and Training is also developing regulations on nutrition education and organizing semi-boarding meals, including strengthening inspection and supervision of schools and units providing meals from outside.
Increase post-inspection, traceability
The Ministry of Health said that inspection, examination and post-inspection work are currently assigned to the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and People's Committees at all levels according to each field.
Food business establishments must keep information about the origin of raw materials, store samples and coordinate traceability when incidents occur.
In the coming time, the Ministry of Health will coordinate with the Ministry of Education and Training to strengthen food safety inspections at schools, especially for semi-boarding meal providers and food businesses around school gates. Educational institutions must also regularly conduct self-inspections and have handling plans when food poisoning occurs.
The Ministry of Health is studying more specific regulations on the responsibilities of commune-level People's Committees in managing street food businesses and providing collective meals, receiving feedback, handling incidents and updating violation information.
Towards a food safety management focal point
Regarding the proposal to build a centralized management model, the Ministry of Health said that it is coordinating with ministries and sectors to develop a Project to complete the state management apparatus on food safety in the direction of unifying a focal point from the Central to local levels.
The principle set out is that each task has an agency as the focal point for advising, coordinating and taking main responsibility; at the same time, increasing decentralization to localities, associated with inspection, supervision and handling of violations. The project has been consulted with ministries, branches, and localities and is continuing to be completed to report to competent authorities.
Can criminally handle serious violations
Regarding the proposal to increase sanctions, the Ministry of Health said that current law has stipulated both administrative and criminal penalties for food safety violations.
Acts of producing and trading in fake food and some acts of violating food safety regulations may be handled according to the Penal Code. In addition to fines, violators may also be subject to additional penalties and remedial measures.
The Ministry of Health is developing a draft amendment to Decree 115/2018/ND-CP in the direction of increasing penalties for a number of acts, and functional agencies are studying to complete criminal regulations related to the use of banned substances, chemicals not in accordance with regulations, production and trading of fake and poor quality food.
In the coming time, the Ministry of Health will continue to coordinate with ministries, branches and localities to strengthen inspection, post-inspection, traceability, publicize violating establishments and handle them according to legal regulations.
