After three years co-operating with companies to develop safe foodchains for essential items, the municipal Health Department hassucceeded in establishing three – for eggs, pork and vegetables.
The safe food chains attest to strict adherence with food safety andhygiene regulations from the farm to the dining table, coveringbreeding, slaughtering, processing and distribution.
LeTruong Giang, Deputy Director of the department and chairman of the HCMCity Public Health Association, told a recent seminar that the chainshad begun supplying about 800,000 eggs, 2 tonnes of vegetables and 2tonnes of pork a day.
"The city will set up more safe food chains in the coming time, including those for tea and seafood," he said.
Company representatives at the seminar raised concerns aboutdifficulties they had faced when participating the health initiative.
They said it was difficult to get "safe" input materials with good practices without the support of preferential policies.
To further develop safe food chains and attract the participation ofmore companies, concerned agencies needed to develop a strong image forthe products, they said.
Tran Vu Bao, deputy head of theCau Tre Export Goods Processing Joint-Stock Company's Quality Managementand Processing Technology Department, which has registered itsparticipation in safe food chains for tea, tra and basa fish, saidproducts that wanted to receive the certification must ensure that allinput materials were also members of similar chains.
Toproduce cha gio (spring rolls) and ha cao (a kind of Chinese dumpling),for instance, the company needed seafood, pork and vegetables, but thecity had not yet established a safe food chain for seafood now, Baosaid.
Cau Tre was working with seafood processors andfarmers in the Cuu Long ( Mekong ) Delta to set up clean tra and basafish breeding areas, he said.
Nguyen Dong Hai, generaldirector of Vietfarm, which specialises in vegetable cultivation andreceived the safe food certification in 2009, said the city should havepreferential policies for companies that apply good agriculturepractices and standards in farming.
It should also step up efforts to make consumers more aware of the products of safe food chains, he said.
Huynh Le Thai Hoa, head of the city Sub-department of Food Hygiene andSafety, said the city would support co-operation among companies thatparticipated in safe food chains to ensure that input materials usedwere supplied on time and at reasonable prices.
However,participating companies that did not follow strictly the regulations onfood safety and hygiene would be removed from the chain and theirviolations publicised in the mass media, he said.
Giangsaid that apart from promoting products of companies participating inthe initiative, the city would also provide them with soft loans fromits price stabilising programme.
The city had spent 60 billion VND (2.9 million USD) on developing safe food chains so far, he said.
HCM City produces just 15-20 percent of its food it consumes, andthe rest is bought from other localities. The food brought is notsubjected to quality control measures for the most part, according tothe health department. /.
The safe food chains attest to strict adherence with food safety andhygiene regulations from the farm to the dining table, coveringbreeding, slaughtering, processing and distribution.
LeTruong Giang, Deputy Director of the department and chairman of the HCMCity Public Health Association, told a recent seminar that the chainshad begun supplying about 800,000 eggs, 2 tonnes of vegetables and 2tonnes of pork a day.
"The city will set up more safe food chains in the coming time, including those for tea and seafood," he said.
Company representatives at the seminar raised concerns aboutdifficulties they had faced when participating the health initiative.
They said it was difficult to get "safe" input materials with good practices without the support of preferential policies.
To further develop safe food chains and attract the participation ofmore companies, concerned agencies needed to develop a strong image forthe products, they said.
Tran Vu Bao, deputy head of theCau Tre Export Goods Processing Joint-Stock Company's Quality Managementand Processing Technology Department, which has registered itsparticipation in safe food chains for tea, tra and basa fish, saidproducts that wanted to receive the certification must ensure that allinput materials were also members of similar chains.
Toproduce cha gio (spring rolls) and ha cao (a kind of Chinese dumpling),for instance, the company needed seafood, pork and vegetables, but thecity had not yet established a safe food chain for seafood now, Baosaid.
Cau Tre was working with seafood processors andfarmers in the Cuu Long ( Mekong ) Delta to set up clean tra and basafish breeding areas, he said.
Nguyen Dong Hai, generaldirector of Vietfarm, which specialises in vegetable cultivation andreceived the safe food certification in 2009, said the city should havepreferential policies for companies that apply good agriculturepractices and standards in farming.
It should also step up efforts to make consumers more aware of the products of safe food chains, he said.
Huynh Le Thai Hoa, head of the city Sub-department of Food Hygiene andSafety, said the city would support co-operation among companies thatparticipated in safe food chains to ensure that input materials usedwere supplied on time and at reasonable prices.
However,participating companies that did not follow strictly the regulations onfood safety and hygiene would be removed from the chain and theirviolations publicised in the mass media, he said.
Giangsaid that apart from promoting products of companies participating inthe initiative, the city would also provide them with soft loans fromits price stabilising programme.
The city had spent 60 billion VND (2.9 million USD) on developing safe food chains so far, he said.
HCM City produces just 15-20 percent of its food it consumes, andthe rest is bought from other localities. The food brought is notsubjected to quality control measures for the most part, according tothe health department. /.
