Hanoi(VNS/VNA) - To tackle rampant food safety issues in Vietnam, a nationalinformation database with real-time updates will be set up, according to DeputyPrime Minister Vu Duc Dam.

Deputy PM Dam said thedatabase must be as user-friendly as possible so that “any farmer or restaurantcan post information regarding their products on the database with littleeffort.”

“Meanwhile, consumerswill be able to easily share information on products or producers that violatefood safety regulations. In the future, consumers could just open their phoneto know the locations of trusted restaurants near them, or trace the origins ofthe vegetables they want to buy,” Deputy PM Dam said.

In a meeting held on November12 by the Central Steering Committee on Food Safety and Hygiene, the Deputy PMsaid that currently, information and statistics related to food safetymanagement – including the number of poisoning cases, the number of inspectionsconducted and their results, a list of registered food products or foodsafety-compliant businesses, etc. – are collected and documented by paper-basedadministration methods, causing delays and making for outdated data in reports.

Citing recommendationsmade in the World Bank’s study on food safety in Vietnam, which urges theGovernment to develop a risk-based system using the principles of riskassessment, risk management and risk communication, Deputy PM Dam said that itis necessary to set up a food safety information database to make public allfactors involved in production, processing, transportation and consumption offood.

The centralised databasewould issue a single ID for each food production and trading business andhousehold, ensuring that each producer and trader would stay under thesupervision of one State agency.

The database has alreadyentered the nascent development stage and pilot operation is being carried outat the Food Safety Administration (Ministry of Health) and selected localities.

The challenges to foodsafety communications in Vietnam are due to a fragmented food production systemwith the involvement of millions of small-holding farmers and producers, lowawareness on food safety issues, inadequate collaboration between ministriesand agencies, and failure to follow safe practices in production andprocessing, among others.

At the meeting,representatives of concerned agencies have agreed to use and contribute data tothe national database, instead of setting up their own system.

Deputy Minister of Scienceand Technology Bui The Duy said to attract public engagement in enlarging thedatabase, the starting information size must be sufficient for start-ups todevelop apps for consumers and other users.

“The more the public usethe apps to look up food safety information or input related information, thelarger and more informative the database would be, which facilitates and easesmonitoring and supervision efforts,” Duy said.

According to the WorldBank, the leading cause for food-related diseases in Vietnam is bacterialcontamination, but high use of chemicals in agricultural production such asantibiotics, pesticides and inorganic fertilisers are also a problem.-VNS/VNA