Hanoi (VNA) - The food market toserve the Tet (Lunar New Year) festival is bustling with variouskinds of products to meet increasing public demand but also poses high risks ofunsafe food or violations in food safety and hygiene.

To better protect consumers’ health, authoritiesin Hanoi have taken measures to tighten control over food safety and hygiene toprevent food poisoning before and during the Tet festivities.

The city has established many inspection teamsto inspect food safety and hygiene and product prices to protect consumers’health. The inspections will focus on facilities producing, processing andtrading products that are mainly used during the Tet holiday andfestivals, such as meat and meat products, beverages, alcoholic drinks andconfectionery.

They will strictly inspect large food processingplants, wholesale markets, supermarkets and shopping malls, besides smallstreet vendors to prevent food poisoning.

Management boards of markets in the city areinstructed to regularly inspect and remind businesses to strictly follow foodsafety and environmental protection regulations and to strictly punishviolators.

The municipal Department of Health has set upfour mobile teams on food poisoning prevention and control.

Head of the city’s Food Safety and HygieneDivision Tran Ngoc Tu said attention would be paid to food supply from otherlocalities to Hanoi. A recent food poisoning case at a school in Dong Anhdistrict showed that it was difficult to deal with the problem when theschool’s food was supplied by a business outside Hanoi.

At a recent inspection in Hoai Duc district,inspectors discovered and fined 44 out of 125 inspected establishments for foodsafety violations and destroyed many products that failed to meet food safetystandards such as confectionery, alcohol and dried beef.  

The city’s Market Watch Division asked relevantagencies to inspect facilities and businesses producing and trading alcoholproducts to prevent food poisoning which has become an urgent problem over Tetin recent years.

The health ministry last month decided to set upsix inter-sectoral teams to inspect food safety in 12 provinces and citiesahead of, during and after Tet. Inspections will be carried out from January 1to March 25, 2019.

During January-October last year, 91 foodpoisoning cases were reported nationwide, mainly involving alcohol andpoisonous mushrooms, claiming the lives of 15 people.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health has warned ofpotential epidemics during Tet and spring festivals afterwards.-VNA