Quickly check food safety for Tet

Around this issue, the Customs Newspaper correspondent had a talk with Mr. Nguyen Thanh Phong, Director General of Food Safety Department, Ministry of Health.

At this time, the food market for Tet has started to get exciting, for the Ministry of Health, how is food safety being implemented, sir?

In order to ensure the safe use of food, the Ministry of Health issued the Directive No. 09/CT-BYT on food safety for the Lunar New Year and the Spring Festival 2018. In that direction, to strengthen the inspection of food safety in the province, there is a key focus on food safety, especially at border gates. At present, the Central Steering Committee for Food Hygiene and Safety has set up 6 inspection teams to inspect 12 provinces in the Tet holiday. It is expected that from this week, inspection teams headed by the Ministry of Health will conduct sudden inspections of some food businesses with the motto of publicity and transparency for enterprises, including those that are good and not good.

Inspection will focus on the consumption of many products in the Lunar New Year such as wine, confectionery etc. The problem of food additives will also be strength tested in this batch. Specifically, during the inspection, the test will incorporate rapid on-site sampling for initial results and can be published immediately to handle any violation.

The Ministry of Health has submitted to the Government for consideration and promulgation new regulations on licensing of foodstuffs, reduction of inspection procedures for specialized businesses, creating favorable conditions for businesses etc. So, how to manage the food safety, sir?

The draft decree amending the Decree 38 on food safety management is being submitted by the Ministry of Health to the Government. If approved and promulgated, it will create a breakthrough in food safety management not only in the field of management of food safety under the Ministry of Health, but all branches and agencies concerned. The draft decree amending Decree 38 actually creates a favorable legal corridor, favorable for production and business activities of enterprises. Specifically, if 100% of food items imported during the customs inspection are subject to specialized inspection, then, as stipulated in the Draft Decree amending Decree 38, the agencies will expand the area without specialized examination. For example, the products have been granted the paper to receive the registration of the product announcement; Products temporarily imported for sale at duty-free shops; or imported products only for production, internal processing in the facility ... Testing methods also have breakthrough changes. Specifically, with the method of examination of records, the authorities will only conduct probation inspection, maximum 5% of the dossier on the total number of shipments randomly selected by Customs.

However, in order to ensure food safety, the management issue must be tightened in the direction of "ventilation of the input, tight output", this means that, the post-inspection and sanctioning will be strengthened but pre-inspection will create greater convenience for businesses. In addition, along with the revision of Decree 38 in the coming time, The Ministry of Health will also advise to amend Decree 178 on sanctions against administrative violations in the food sector in the direction of increasing serious sanctions against violations of food safety. Along with that, additional sanctions, withdrawal of permits and publicity will be added to the mass media.

Thank you Sir!