Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat urged relevant agencies to step up food safety inspections as consumption increased ahead of the lunar New Year Festival (January 31). "The plant protection section authorities should send staff to help educate farmers how to produce clean and safe food. Taking samples at markets for testing is not enough and not effective. All the products would be sold before the test results came back," Minister Phat said at a conference yesterday. Recent inspections in the northern region showed that four of 54 chicken samples contained campylobacter, a bacterium that causes intestinal infections, said Nguyen Nhu Tiep, head of the Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Assurance Department. Six of 40 contained chloramphenicol and furazolidon, two banned chemicals, and four contained more tetracycline than the allowed level. The ministry's inspectors have also caught many smugglers illegally importing buffaloes and cattle from Thailand. Nguyen Xuan Duong, vice head of the Livestock Breeding Department, said that authorities largely failed to scrutinize produce for dangerous substances. About 8.3 per cent of 96 imported samples of vegetables contained an excessive amount of plant protection substances. (Vietnam News Dec 10)
