Food safety is an important concern in the APAC region.
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The Vietnamese government’s newly-established national food safety centre will prioritise early risk management and nationwide data collection in order to support food safety enhancement.
Vietnam recently inaugurated the establishment of the Vietnam Centre for Food Safety Risk Assessment (VFSA) dedicated to risk assessment, food safety management and solution development, to be managed under the National Institute for Food Control (NIFC).
“Vietnam’s diverse food supply poses multiple variants of food safety risks, which has made it necessary for us to establish a specialised centre for risk assessment,” Ministry of Health Deputy Minister Do Xuan Tuyen told the floor at the launch ceremony.
“This centre will be key in providing scientific evidence to support legal actions against food safety violations and enhance public awareness of various food safety risks.
“There are five key groups of tasks that the institute is expected to focus on at this time, which includes: Resource development in accordance with international guidelines; Conducting risk assessment studies in the local food supply chain; Food safety standards and regulations; Data collection and network building; and Scientific advice provision.
“All of these are very important in establishing regulations that are suitable for Vietnamese consumers as well as in harmony with international standards [and act as] the basis for better food quality and safety control [to] increase people’s confidence in domestic products.”
Newly elected VFSA Head and NIFC Deputy Director Dr Tran Cao Son added that risk assessments will be the first step in the centre’s operationalisation.
“These risk assessment studies will be crucial to identify potential hazards in the food supply chain at an early stage, whether at production, distribution or consumption, in order to provide early warning and timely prevention of public health risks,” he said.
“We hope that the centre will be developed as a focal point for food safety risk assessment, as well as for the establishment of a data management and sharing system amongst all relevant agencies to better manage national food safety.
“VFSA has already defined our 2030 vision, which includes [all five points mentioned by deputy Minister Do] such as resource development and building a comprehensive database, in order to contribute to the formulation of national standards and regulations.”
Food safety focus
Vietnam has invested a great deal of effort in improving its food safety management in recent years.
The new centre is not its only food safety initiative to be conducted on a national level – earlier this year, Vietnam completed and launched a new digital food safety management system developed in partnership with South Korea.
This system was designed to closely emulate South Korea’s own local system which is widely regarded to be one of the most comprehensive in the world.
One of its primary foci is on real-time reporting of food poisoning outbreaks in the country in the hopes of activating a rapid response to such incidents.
