On July 14, at the Government Headquarters, Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Prime Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra - Head of the Central Inter-sectoral Steering Committee for Food Safety (ATTP) chaired the Steering Committee meeting.
According to the report, the health sector inspected 118,009 establishments, detected 5,695 violating establishments, accounting for 4.83% of the inspected establishments; handled 3,772 establishments, equivalent to 66.22% of the violating establishments, a sharp increase compared to the same period last year; fined 3,571 establishments with a total amount of more than 20.2 billion VND.
In particular, the People's Police force discovered and handled 4,688 cases with 4,795 violating organizations and individuals, an increase of 102% compared to the same period last year. In which, 95 cases were prosecuted with 192 defendants, an increase of 265% in the number of cases and 237% in the number of defendants respectively; administratively handled 3,589 cases and transferred more than 1,000 cases to competent authorities for further handling.
Notably, the situation of food poisoning tends to increase. In the first 6 months of 2026, the whole country recorded 58 food poisoning cases with 1,573 people affected and 10 deaths, an increase of 23 cases compared to the same period last year. In particular, 12 poisoning cases occurred at school kitchens, causing 741 students to get sick, an increase of 9 cases and an increase of 686 students to get sick compared to the same period.
Concluding the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra pointed out that the situation of food poisoning continues to increase, in which many poisoning cases occur at school kitchens. This is a very alarming reality.
According to government leaders, schools must be the place to be comprehensively cared for and ensure the safest for the future generations of the country. The occurrence of food safety violations in schools not only directly affects the health and physical condition of students but also affects the quality of human resources in the future. If there are no drastic solutions, this situation will cause serious consequences.
Regarding tasks for the coming time, the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized that ensuring food safety is a particularly important task for people's health, national competitiveness and the quality of human resources.
Ministries, sectors, and localities focus highly, synchronously and drastically implement food poisoning prevention solutions, in which the top priority is ensuring food safety and hygiene at educational institutions.
It is necessary to tighten the management of school kitchens, strictly control the origin of food and processing conditions, to ensure that each meal of students is safe and nutritious.
Tighten state management, improve the responsibility of ministries, branches and local authorities; consolidate the organizational structure, clearly define the responsibilities of Chairmen of People's Committees at all levels; build a team of capable and responsible management officials.
At the same time, strengthen resources for localities, especially at the commune level; promote training and fostering cadres and ensure funding for implementing food safety management tasks.
The Deputy Prime Minister also requested to continue to promote inspection, examination, struggle and strictly handle violations of food safety. In which, assigning the Ministry of Public Security to continue to focus on fighting and cracking down on organizations and businesses producing and trading counterfeit goods, fake goods, and poor quality goods, especially products related to food.
This is a very big issue, directly related to human health and physical condition. When it comes to the human factor, this is an issue that must be paid attention to first and foremost," the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized.
