HÀ NỘI — Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc has ordered food management agencies to heighten focus on food safety management following a National Assembly (NA) debate on Monday.

He requested that agencies to collaborate with the National Steering Committee 389 against smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeiting goods to tackle false, inaccurate information that has negative impacts on food production and shatters citizens’ belief in food safety.

He assigned the Ministry of Health to be in charge and collaborate with other ministries to review the implementation of food safety law and regulations within this year, as well as submitting a proposal to increase administrative sanctions on food safety violations in November 2017 at the latest.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is responsible for developing policies and regulations to promote high-tech agricultural production, organic agricultural production and large-scale food processing chains, as well as controlling the use of plant protection chemicals, veterinary drugs, fertilisers and animal feeds in agro-forestry-fishery production.   

The Ministry of Industry and Trade is requested to implement drastic measures to prevent and combat counterfeiting and poor quality goods, directing the implementation of solutions to control food quality at markets and supermarkets, promoting strong brands that provide safe food and identifying enterprises and products that violate food safety regulations.

The People’s Committees at all levels are requested to strictly implement regulations on food safety management in their areas and make food safety an annual target for socio-economic development.

The NA on Monday spent the whole day discussing measures to ensure food safety, as a report released by the NA Steering Committee showed violations have remained a grave issue over the past years despite prevention efforts from authorised agencies.

Although more than 678,000 out 3.35 million food producing and trading facilities/eateries across the country were found to commit violations in 2011-16, only some 136,000 of them – or roughly 20 per cent – were tackled by the authorities, according to the report. — VNS