Violations increase sharply, many large-scale lines are dismantled
At the forum "Preventing dirty food - Responsibility and action" organized by the People's Police Newspaper on July 2, Colonel, Doctor Tran Viet Phuong, Deputy Director of the Department of Environmental Crime Prevention and Control Police (C05), Ministry of Public Security, said that the situation of dirty food not only directly threatens community health but also seriously affects consumer confidence and the business environment.
In the first 6 months of 2026, the Police force nationwide discovered and handled 5,992 organizations and individuals violating food safety laws, an increase of more than 100% compared to the same period last year. Along with that, 123 cases have been prosecuted with 249 defendants, showing that the situation of fake food, dirty food and food of unknown origin is still extremely complicated.
During the same period, the Market Management force inspected more than 23,700 cases, detected nearly 20,000 violations with a total handling amount of over 330 billion VND. In the field of food safety alone, 2,124 violations were recorded, nearly 16.9 billion VND was fined, and 128 cases were transferred to investigating agencies.
According to Mr. Tran Viet Phuong, violations are increasingly organized and use many sophisticated tricks to bring poor quality food to the market for profit.
Dirty food creeps into schools and collective kitchens
Worryingly, functional forces have discovered many cases of collecting, transporting and slaughtering pigs infected with African swine fever to supply to food businesses, industrial meal processing facilities, and even units supplying meals to schools.
Besides, there are a series of cases of producing bean sprouts using 6-Benzylaminopurine chemicals in Quang Ninh, Hung Yen and Ninh Binh; using borax in noodle production; using industrial chemicals Sodium Silicate to pre-process snail meat in Ho Chi Minh City; and many lines producing fake functional foods and supplements in Thanh Hoa, Bac Ninh and Dak Lak.
Many products are advertised as health-protective foods but do not contain or do not contain enough active ingredients as announced. Most are consumed through social networks and e-commerce platforms, causing difficulties for inspection, traceability and handling.
According to a representative of C05, the discovery and prosecution of many cases in the past time has contributed to preventing a large amount of unsafe food from reaching consumers. However, dirty food still has "land to live" due to excessive profits and loopholes in management.
Management loopholes create opportunities for violations
Dr. Nguyen Trung Nguyen - Director of the Poison Control Center, Bach Mai Hospital - said that current food poisoning cases mainly originate from three groups of causes including chemicals, microorganisms and natural toxins. Among them, chemical poisoning is on the rise as many new types of chemicals are being used illegally in food production.
Faced with the above situation, Dr. Chu Quoc Thinh, Director of the Food Safety Department (Ministry of Health), said that the draft Law on Food Safety (amended) is being developed in the direction of comprehensively innovating management. Accordingly, instead of just checking the final product, the draft shifts to risk management throughout the supply chain, from production to circulation in the market.
At the same time, the draft strengthens pre-inspection for high-risk foods, expands post-inspection and tightens management of business activities in e-commerce.
Notably, for the first time, the national food safety data system is proposed to be legalized to improve traceability, early risk warning and more effective case handling.
