HCM City (VNA) - The Ho Chi Minh City People’sCommittee has proposed the Government upgrade the city’s Food SafetyManagement Board into a department six years after its establishment toenable the board to perform its tasks optimally.

HCM City was the first locality in the country to set up the boardin 2016, said Pham Khanh Phong Lan, head of the board.

Although it has been operating on a pilot basis, the board hasbeen performing well its tasks assigned by the municipal People’sCommittee on food safety management in the city, Lan said at a conference on July15 to review the six years of its operation.

Food safety inspection, surveillance and testing have beenstrengthened while stringent penalties have been imposed to control food safetyhazards and prevent food safety incidents in the city, she said.

Food safety chains have been increasingly expanded in the city tosupply safe food to the city's markets, Lan said.

However, food safety management remains a challenging task andthere is a high risk of potential food safety incidents due to a growing numberof small food producers and traders, high use of agricultural inputs such asantibiotics, pesticides and chemical fertilisers and overlapping roles of threedepartments - health, industry and trade, and agricultural and ruraldevelopment, she said.

Twelve food poisoning cases have occurred in the city overthe past six years, with 185 people getting poisoned and seven deaths.

During the period, teams of inspectors carried out inspections of327,554 establishments around the city. Violations were discovered at 36,953establishments./.