Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The agricultural sector of Hanoi has enhancedmanagement of food hygiene and safety in food production and trading in recenttimes, according to Hanoi's Agriculture and Rural Development Department.

These efforts included inspection, evaluation, classification and developmentof safe agricultural chains to control the quality of agricultural products.

However, implementing these efforts had faced many difficulties, especiallyamong small-scale establishments.

According to Hanoi’s Agricultural, Forestry and Fishery Product Quality ControlDepartment, the city has 17,417 agricultural production and tradingestablishments.

Since earlier this year, the department had evaluated and classified 51 establishments,of which 13 did not meet standards for food hygiene. They face a range ofpunishments, from fines to closure.

“The department carried out inspections for five establishments in the city andfound violations of food safety and hygiene in two of them,” Le Trung Kien, thedepartment’s inspector told Hanoi Moi Newspaper.

“The establishments’ owners could not show the certificates of food safety, andfailed to fully comply with product storage conditions and hygiene ofwarehouses,” Kien said.

Regarding difficulties inspecting and handling violations in small-scaleestablishments, the department’s vice director Ngo Dinh Loat said: “The numberof agricultural production establishments in the city was very large but thenumber of inspection staff was modest.”

“Particularly, most entities were small scale. Many of them did not havebusiness registrations and their trading was mainly in wholesale markets,” Loatsaid.

He said some establishments had even moved headquarters without telling authorities,making managing them difficult.

To improve the efficiency of food safety and hygiene control, Hanoi’sAgricultural and Rural Development Department will continue to enhanceinformation dissemination on mass media about food management regulations andchoosing safe products with clear origins.

According to vice director of the Agriculture and Rural Development Department TaVan Tuong, the department will ask units to strengthen unscheduled inspectionson production and trading entities and take samples of products for testing todiscover violations of food safety and hygiene regulations.

All establishments of agro-fishery production and trading must havecertificates of food safety and hygiene, Tuong said.

District governments should allocate funds and arrange staff per therequirements of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and themunicipal authority.

The establishments found not to comply with regulations should be closed andthe owners should be fined.

It was necessary to promote tracking origins of agro products by QR codes tohelp customers access safe products and create healthy competition in themarket, Loat said.

Nguyen Thi Tuyet Anh, deputy head of the economic department of Thanh Tri district,said by the end of this year, the district would enhance management of qualityand safety of agro-forestry-fishery production and trading.

The district planned to organise training courses on food safety and hygienefor commune-level staff, Anh said./.