Hanoi Food Safety: Leadership and Responsibilities

2016 Efforts to Ensure Food Safety

Dr. Jason KasselCentre of Commerce & Management

RMIT University Vietnam (Hanoi)

Sources: VN English News Sites 1

● 14/8 2016 Hanoi businesses sign commitment to ensuring food safety http://bit.ly/2gwuxnb

● 9/9/16 - This Vietnamese Agriculture Startup Is Sparking A Food Safety Movement http://bit.ly/2gwr6g7

● 27/9/16 Quick response force to tackle food safety problems in Hanoi http://bit.ly/2grStKM

● 28/09/2016 - Vietnam premier inspects food safety at Hanoi market, veggie farm http://bit.ly/2fBItNC

Sources: VN English News Sites 2

● 8/11/16 - Vietnam increases fines for food safety violation http://bit.ly/2g2RC2● 13/11/2016 - The war on dirty food goes mobile http://bit.ly/2fyxjpz● 23/11/16 - Việt Nam, Australia to intensify cooperation in agriculture

http://bit.ly/2grN6Lm● 26/11/2016 Thuong Tin District to promote food safety and hygiene -

http://bit.ly/2gvLDkK

PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc● Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc● Working session with municipal officials on September 27● Relevant mechanisms and policies to improve the management● PM Phuc stressed food safety is of critical importance since it relates to people’s life and health● PM Phuc spent most of the time addressing issues relating to the lack of proper hygiene at several street diners,

makeshift markets, and slaughterhouses.● He highlighted the Vietnamese people’s concern over food safety matters, asserting that stern punishments must be

imposed upon violators of food safety regulations.● Local leaders are responsible for protecting residents’ health and wellbeing by carrying out more regular inspections

on food processing facilities, markets, and eateries across the capital● PM agreed with Ho Chi Minh City’s proposal to pilot a food safety control board which will take over relevant jobs

done by the departments of Public Health, Agriculture and Rural Development, and Industry and Trade

National and City Party Leadership

● Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc● Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam● Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen Duc Chung● Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Vu Van Tam● Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long● Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Hoang Quoc Vuong● Deputy Head of Department of Food Safety, the health sector of Ha Noi, Tran

Viet Nga● Deputy Chairman of Ha Noi Food Safety Administration’s Steering Committee

Nguyen Khac Hien● Director of the Ha Noi Food Safety Administration Tran Ngoc Tu

Un-Named National Leadership● Ministry of Health● Ministry of Industry and Trade● Ministry of Agriculture and Rural development● Public Security. National Defense, Industry and Trade, and people’s

committee in border crossings should increase control to prevent smuggled food without clear indication of origin and providing training on food safety to employees.

Local Level Leadership

● Steering boards established at all 30 districts and townships● Vice-chairpersons of district-level People’s Committees● The Party Committee of Thuong Tin District ordered the following to focus on

food safety:○ All level Party Committees

○ Authorities

○ Fatherland Front Committees

○ Divisions

○ Sectors

○ Aagencies

○ Officials

○ Party members

○ People

Hanoi Has Been Active

● Steering board for food safety has been set up● Led by Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen Duc Chung● Similar steering boards established at all 30 districts and townships● Heads of local administrations must take responsibility● Vice chairpersons of district-level People’s Committees are required to

examine food safety situation every two weeks● Hanoi inspected nearly 77,400 food processing facilities

○ Discovered 12,370 violations of relevant regulations○ More than 22.6 billion VND (over 1 million USD) in fines was collected.

Source: 27/9/16 Quick response force to tackle food safety problems in Hanoi http://m.english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/society/164419/quick-response-force-to-tackle-food-safety-problems-in-hanoi.html

Hanoi Activity - Mobile Labs 1

● Ha Noi authorities recently deployed three mobile food testing labs● First such facility in the country● Detect unsafe food at city markets and restaurants● Joint food inspection teams from the departments of agriculture and rural

development, trade and industry, and health

Hanoi Activity - Mobile Labs 2

● Lab van visited Den Lu whole-sale market, the biggest market in the southern neighborhoods of the capital, selling fruit, cattle and poultry, vegetables and other agricultural products to the whole city

● Some neighbouring provinces● Also conducted at two restaurants.

Hanoi Activity - Mobile Labs 3

● Found numerous unsafe food items● Quick testing discovered a large amount of vegetables at Hai Xom restaurant

containing high residues of a plant protection drug● Ra meat sample at Den Lu Market suspected of being affected by

Salbutamol. ● Le Duy Trung of the Agricultural Product Certification Centre● Mobile van is equipped with advanced equipment that can quickly analyse

and classify raw food samples at a reasonable cost and accuracy of 80-85 per cent.

Hanoi Activity - Mobile Labs 4● It takes from five minutes to one hour to test a raw food sample for different kinds of

chemicals or bacteria. For example: five minutes to find borax or formaldehyde content, 45-60 minutes to detect antibiotics, residues of plant protection drugs.

● Food Safety Administration● mobile food testing labs should also visit schools and hospitals where a large number

of food vendors congregate.● However, development of state-of-the-art mobile labs requires funding by city

authorities and qualified technicians from the health department. Private investment can also be mobilised for the war on dirty food.

● The three US-made mobile vans were sponsored by Vingroup Joint Stock Company. ○ A similar model operates in India’s Punjab and Haryana states, where consumers

can check raw food samples at nominal cost.

26 Nov Thong Thin District Regulations● Increasing the quality, ability, efficiency of the state management

● Implementing policies, laws of the State, regulations on food safety

● Enhancing specialized inspection

● Construction of cooperative rules to clearly identify responsibilities of relevant sectors, units

● Setting up warning systems and analyzing risks of food contamination

● Preventing poisoning cases and food-borne diseases

● Timely detecting, strictly handling violation cases of food safety

● Tightening the control of food safety in facilities processing, trading foods, catering services, canteens

● Resolutely handling irresponsible officials, civil servants causing violations

● Replicating food management models from production to trade

● Planning concentrated production areas of safe food, especially vegetables, fruits, meat, seafood

● Building areas producing food ingredients and processing, trading foods at large scale in association with new-style rural construction

● Piloting, maintaining food safety models

● Replicate models of management, processing, trade, consumption of safe foods

● Improving abilities of facilities processing, trading foods

● Strengthening the evaluation work to grant certificates of food safety

● Signing commitments on food safety assurance.

Source: 26/11/2016 Thuong Tin District to promote food safety and hygiene - http://bit.ly/2gvLDkK

Business Have Signed Food Safety Agreements● Food production, processing and trade facilities in Ha Noi signed commitment, pledging to ensure

food safety.● Department will increase supervision● Businesses pledged to follow regulations on food safety during food production, processing and

trade, and take responsibility for following issues: ○ ensuring safety and clear origin of food ingredients, ○ food additives and processing aids○ ensuring that food wrapper is safe○ the wrapper does not contaminate the food or affect food quality○ providing full and accurate information about products○ avoiding false or misleading food advertising○ publicizing their certificates of facilities meeting requirements and certificates of food origin.

● The businesses confirmed to follow regulations on facilities, supplies and equipments for food production, processing and trade, prevention of insect and animal, waste treatment and environmental hygiene.

Source: 14/8 2016 Hanoi businesses sign commitment to ensuring food safety http://hanoitimes.com.vn/social-affair/2016/08/81E0A744/hanoi-businesses-sign-commitment-to-ensuring-food-safety/

Example of Best Practices Company● Naturally Vietnam - Hanoi-based agriculture startup ● Provides traceable food products● Sources all their products from six farms in the city’s Soc Son district● Helped build the farms up from scratch by offering startup loans of over $2,000● The livestock farms are veterinarian-supervised, use chemical-free processes ● Any product sold in Naturally Vietnam’s shops are easily traceable in terms of food origins and

processes.● Naturally Vietnam runs an online grocery shop where customers can comb through pages of

produce, fresh fruit, meat and poultry, and select from over 300 products. ● Naturally Vietnam is unable to build in credit card payments into their platform but allows for direct

bank transfer or cash-on-delivery. ● Groceries are delivered by motorbike and usually arrive within 24 hours of ordering.

Source: 9/9/16 - This Vietnamese Agriculture Startup Is Sparking A Food Safety Movement http://www.forbes.com/sites/irisleung/2016/09/09/this-vietnamese-agriculture-startup-is-sparking-a-food-safety-movement-in-hanoi/#1ce9fd8421e7

World Bank Prior Support

● The World Bank has approved an additional aid of US$45 million for Livestock Competitiveness and Food Safety Project for Viet Nam.

● Livestock Competitiveness and Food Safety Project for Viet Nam● support the revamp of 124 small-scale slaughterhouses and reinforced tests

of bacteria on meat coming from these facilities along with aiding 23 medium and large-scale slaughterhouses in improving their processing process.

● It will also support the upgrade of 300 markets selling fresh meat to national food safety standards

Source: 29/6/2015 - WB helps improve food safety in VN http://hanoitimes.com.vn/social-affair/2015/06/81E094B5/wb-helps-improve-food-safety-in-vn/