“Shield” against dirty food

Amidst the "matrix" of dirty food, instead of going to traditional markets, many consumers have chosen homemade food.

Ms. Le Thi Thu Trang (37 years old, Tan Loi ward, Buon Ma Thuot city) said that she was very confused because fake food and dirty food were discovered in large quantities recently, notably many of which were food products from reputable brands, causing her confidence to decline.

Therefore, in addition to fresh food, many ingredients and spices used for family meals have been replaced by homemade products.

Instead of using seasoning powder and MSG like before, she chose seasoning powder made from shiitake mushrooms, dried shrimp, seaweed, etc. naturally dried. According to Trang, this method takes a lot of time and effort, and the price is also higher than buying spices, but she is always assured and confident in the quality because she makes them herself.

The interdisciplinary inspection team inspected food products sold at supermarkets in the province.

Like Ms. Trang, Ms. Vo Thi Nhu Suong (34 years old, Tan Lap ward, Buon Ma Thuot city) also used old foam boxes to grow clean vegetables in the yard in front of her house; at the same time, she contacted friends and relatives in the locality to order pork, beef, chicken, and free-range fish. After being pre-processed, Ms. Suong divided the food into small portions and froze them for later use.

“I grow vegetables in styrofoam boxes, order meat from acquaintances, and make ham, sausages, and bean sprouts myself. Although it is a bit more difficult, I feel secure knowing that I am eating the food I am using, and I don’t have to worry about chemicals or harmful preservatives affecting my family’s health,” Ms. Suong shared.

Mr. Tran Quang Hung, Deputy Head of the Food Safety Department (Department of Health ) said that in recent times, the work of ensuring food hygiene and safety (FSH) has been focused on by agencies, departments and branches in the province, but there are still some shortcomings that pose a risk of food safety loss. The reason is that the compliance with regulations by establishments is still limited, especially the lack of strict inspection of the origin of input materials.

The Food Safety Department has advised the establishment of interdisciplinary teams to increase surprise inspections of food production and trading establishments, especially those supplying supermarkets, collective kitchens, and boarding schools. Provide guidance on food sample storage, with special attention paid to three-step food inspection right from the input materials, and early identification of risks to eliminate unsafe food.

Fresh food products sold in supermarkets are trusted and chosen by many people.

In addition to fresh food, with functional food products that have been widely advertised for a long time, the Food Safety Department also strengthens control, periodically buys random samples of functional foods to send for testing according to the self-declaration of the enterprise. At the same time, coordinates with the Food Safety Department ( Ministry of Health ) to handle substandard samples, requires forced recall and sends documents to relevant units to advise establishments not to trade and people not to use.

According to Director of the Department of Health Nay Phi La, to ensure food safety, people need to raise awareness from home to market, this is the "shield" to help prevent the risk of using fake food, dirty food in daily meals. In addition, community supervision, the participation of Party committees and authorities to join hands to prevent dirty food is extremely necessary.

In the coming time, the Department of Health will advise all levels and sectors to complete the coordination regulations between localities, units and the health sector on food safety and disease prevention and control. Especially in the context that the whole country is implementing the restructuring and streamlining of the apparatus, decentralization to commune-level authorities will contribute to improving the effectiveness and efficiency in ensuring food safety, preventing and combating the risk of mass poisoning right from the grassroots level, contributing to protecting people's health.

In the first 6 months of the year, the functional sectors have carried out 6 rounds of food safety inspections, with 7,718 food establishments inspected, of which 7,082 establishments met the requirements (accounting for 91.8%), administrative violations were handled for 196 establishments, with a total fine of over 500 million VND.

Source: https://baodaklak.vn/xa-hoi/202506/tam-khien-truoc-thuc-pham-ban-6a6165a/