Dr. Nguyễn Thanh Phong Deputy Director of VFA Hà Nội, May - 2012

1. CURRENT SITUATION ON FOOD HYGIENE AND SAFETY CONTROL WITHIN THE HEALTH SECTOR AND PROPOSAL FOR SUPPORT Dr. Nguyễn Thanh Phong Deputy Director of VFA Hà Nội, May - 2012

2. Outline 1 Current situation on FHS in Việt Nam Proposal for supports 2 3

3. 1. FHS situation in VN Exercising state management on FHS by MOH According to Law on FHS: FHS control is assigned to 3 ministries: MOH, MARD, and MOC. Among those, MOH is responsible to the Government in exercising state management on FHS. FHS control is conducted throughout the process of production, preliminary treatment, processing, storage, transportation, import/export, trading of food additives, supplementaries for food processing, bottled drinking water, mineral water, supplementary food stuff and others in accordance with the Government’s regulations, .

4. 1. FHS situation in VN Issuing legal documents - Law on FHS adopted by the NA on 17/6/2010 and officially came into force from 01/7/2011. - Decree No. 38/NĐ-CP signed and promulgated on 25/4/2012 by the Government and came into force from 11/6/2012. - The National Strategy on FHS 2011-2020 with a vision to 2030 was approved by the Government on 4/1/2012. - Directive No. 08/CT/TW dated 21/10/2011 of the Party’s Central Committee Tenure XI on “Enhancing the leadership of the Party on FHS in the new context”. - And many other FHS related documents have been issued.

5. 1. FHS situation in VN State management system on FHS At Central level: Vietnam Food Administration (VFA) At provincial level: following Decree No. 79/2008/NĐ-CP of the Government, to date 63/63 provinces/centrally-run cities established the Provincial Food Administration (PFA) affiliated to Department of Health, with an average of 11 full-time staff; At district level: the number of people involved in FHS control across the country is estimated at 1.949 (on the average: 3,0 people/district). - At commune level: , the number of people involved in FHS control across the country is estimated at 11.516 người (on the average 1,05 people/commune) (part-time).

6. 1. FHS situation in VN FHS Testing System - In implementing Decree No.79/2008/NĐ-CP, the network of FHS testing is being consolidated from the Central level to local level. + At central level: 04 Institutes + At local level: 63 Provincial Preventive Medicine Centers (PPMC) or Pharmaceutical/Food Testing Centers.

7. 1. FHS situation in VN FHS inspectorate At Central level: establishment of VFA Inspectorate At Provincial level: establishment of PFA Inspectorate with a total number of 171 inspectors

8. 1. FHS situation in VN Funding for FHS control At present, low investment is being given to FHS control. In 2009, the funding accounted for 137 billion VND, with an average of 1,597 VND/capita/year. - The average funding invested in a province during 2004-2006 was 484.76 million VND/province/year, between 2007-2008 - 762.1 million VND/province/year, and between 2009-2010 – 1,468 million VND/province/year.

9. 1. FHS situation in VN Situation on food production and trading Production, use/trading of additives, supplementaries for food processing, and food preservatives . Production, use/trading of alcoholic drinks, soft drinks, bottled drinking water Production, use/trading of supplementary food stuff and milk. FHS status in processing of meat, eggs and bee honey. FHS control status at markets, supermarkets . FHS processing at collective catering services in industrial parks, offices, schools, hospitals. - FHS processing at catering service outlets, street food, tourism sites FHS processing at hotels, restaurants. Scope/Size of food production and processing facilities in Việt Nam

10. 1. FHS situation in VN FHS knowledge According to findings from a KAP survey conducted by VFA in 2011: FHS knowledge in the leader/manager group: 93,5 ± 1,9%. FHS knowledge in the foodstuff producer group: 82,9 ± 2,0% FHS knowledge in the foodstuff trading group: 82,1 ± 2,0% FHS knowledge in the foodstuff user group: 82,4 ± 2,0%

11. 1. FHS situation in VN Situation of food poisoning

12. 2. Proposal for supports Staff training Training to improve technical expertise, foreign language proficiency for staff in the system. Training on skills of document drafting, editing. Developing technical standards in international and regional harmonization. Training lab technicians on FHS testing. Capacity building for technical focal points of TBT, SPS.

13. 2. Proposal for supports 2. Surveillance of food poisoning and food borne diseases • Providing technical assistance and projects on food poisoning, food-borne diseases control. Specifically: conducting surveillance activities on food poisoning risks; assessment of food poisoning burden; control of food poisoning for mass/collective dining/catering services; street foods and foods in tourism sites.

14. 2. Proposal for supports 3. Rapid warning and analysis of FHS risks - Supporting development of the rapid warning system on FHS for imported foodstuff and domestic produced/trading foodstuff.

15. 2. Proposal for supports 4. Enhancing IEC for FHS - Developing and producing IEC materials (in Vietnamese and ethnic minorities’ language) ; - Organizing propaganda programs on FHS control; - Organizing mobile propaganda programs on FHS control. - Training workshops to improve skills on IEC for FHS and its risks; • Skills on development of FHS messages. • Developing a project on IT to provide public administration services for the nation-wide system. 5. Capacity building for FHS inspectorate

16. Thank You !