HCM City(VNA)  - Ho Chi Minh City has carried outdrastic measures to ensure food safety and hygiene, but this is a long-term fightagainst unsafe food, said Vice Chairwoman of the municipal People’s CommitteeNguyen Thi Thu.

Thu spoke at a meeting onDecember 2 reviewing the effectiveness of the implementation of a pilotprogramme on food-safety inspection at 10 communes and wards in five districtsover one year.

“The fight will not endovernight. Profits from using unsafe food are too big,” Thu said.

The best way is toincrease inspections and impose strict punishments, she added.

“The city is achievingthe goal of improving the quality of life so its authorities should not letresidents be worried about food poisoning,” she said.

Nguyen Huu Hung, deputyhead of the city Department of Health, said that the pilot programe onfood-safety inspection at 10 communes and wards in five districts carried outlast November is one of the city’s programmes to ensure food safety.

More surprise inspectionshave been carried out in the programme, Hung said.

As of September, 3,968food producing and trading facilities in the 10 communes and wards have beeninspected, an increase of 36.2 percent compared to the same period of lastyear.

The districts include 3,5, Binh Tan, Binh Chanh and Hoc Mon.

Of the 3,968 facilities,2,163 were fined while fines were imposed on only 343 of the 2,914 facilitiesinspected in the same period last year.

The programme has helpedreduce food poisoning incidents from four to one in the 10 localities, as ofSeptember.

Do Dinh Thien, deputyhead of the Binh Tan District People’s Committee, suggested that the cityPeople’s Committee should allow the district to expand the programme in itsother wards.

Dr Nguyen Hung Long,deputy head of the Vietnam Food Administration, said that in the programme,food-safety inspectors at wards and communes have been given the right toimpose fines in order to boost warning for violators of food safety andhygiene.

In the past, inspectorsat wards and communes only gave out warnings to violators, Long said.

Thu said that the citywill expand the programme throughout the city.

“Grassroots-levelinspectors are necessary to help quickly detect violations of food safety andhygiene,” Thu said.

She said that the departmentshould open training courses to improve skills for inspectors at wards andcommunes.

Prof Dr Nguyen Tan Binh,head of the city Department of Health, said that the city is co-operating withthe local Vietnam Fatherland Front to strengthen supervision to ensure foodsafety and hygiene.

“This is a task of thewhole political system and community to join with each other,” Binh said.-VNA