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| A consumer checks information about the origin of pork sold at Co.opmart Gò Vấp supermarket. The city yesterday began a programme to electronically provide such information in packaging labels. — VNS Photo |
Viet Nam News
HCM CITY — The HCM City Department of Industry and Trade yesterday inaugurated a system that enables consumers to check the origin of pork they buy at nearly 350 modern outlets.
Managed by the departments of Industry and Trade, and Agriculture and Rural Development, the sub-department of Animal Health and the city’s High Technology Association, it allows consumers to find out the origin of pork from electronic labels stuck on the packaging.
The labels contain all information about the meat, including the animal breeding process, slaughterhouse and markets where it is sold.
The sellers taking part in the programme include Co.opmart and Co.opXtra, Co.opFood, SatraFood, Big C, Lotte Mart, Auchan, Aeon-Citimart and Queenland.
Đào Hà Trung, chairman of the HCM City High Technology Association, said to get the information about the pork, consumers should download the QR Code decoding application from www.te-food.com to their devices, open the app on their phones and focus the device’s camera on the barcode area on the label to read the results.
Alternatively, they can use a device installed near the pork counter to read the information.
Nguyễn Ngọc Hòa, the department’s deputy director, said based on the results of the first phase the programme would be expanded to traditional channels later.
Phạm Thành Kiên, the department’s director and head of the project, said it is one of several important measures to reduce the amount of unsafe meat.
The municipal government expects the programme to be successful and to expand it to cover other essential products in future, he said.
If consumers seek to consume more products with clear origin, they would help gradually push unsafe food out of the market, he said. — VNS
