The health sector planned to step up food inspections to raise safety and hygiene standards, said Nguyen Thanh Phong, deputy director of the Ministry of Health's Food Safety and Hygiene Department.
Phong said at a conference on the start of Vietnam Month of Action for Food Safety and Hygiene 2010, which begins today, that although standards had improved, management of the industry and legal documents on food safety and hygiene remained weak.
Department statistics showed that there were just 230 food safety and hygiene inspectors in the country, while it has been estimated that between 12,000-15,000 were required.
The conference heard that spending on improving human resources in the sector was just VND780,000 (US$41) per person per year – 5 per cent of the amount Thailand spends on environmental health.
Andrew Speedy, from the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation, said it was vital that Vietnam improved food safety.
According to Speedy, the UN would provide technical assistance with training food inspectors and with issuing a food safety law.
Phong said that during the month-long campaign, 11 interdisciplinary inspection teams would be established to check food quality in 33 cities and provinces.
The teams – including representatives from the ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development, Trade and Industry, Science and Technology and Health – would check food products and take samples for further testing if necessary.
Phong said State management work on food hygiene and safety would be evaluated in a bid to increase the quality of food sold domestically and abroad.
The Food Hygiene and Safety Department said that there had been 23 serious outbreaks of mass food poison this year that resulted in 12 deaths and 686 people being hospitalised.
