Authorities of Vietnam’s southern economic hub of Ho Chi Minh City have urged its health department to work with other agencies to take drastic measures to deal with the rising cases of food poisoning in recent times. These units have been asked to conduct frequent inspections at food establishments and catering providers with the aim to ensure food safety, especially for workers at local industrial parks (IPs) where the increase in food poisoning has been recorded in. The municipal authorities also emphasized the necessity to build and operate food safety testing systems at IPs and export processing zones in a move to tackle the pressing issue. Violators should get tough punishment and their operations are required to be suspended and announced on media. In the first seven months of this year, HCM City reported five collective poisoning cases involving 638 people in District 12, Binh Tan, Thu Duc and Binh Chanh districts. Vietnam record 64 food poisoning cases during the period, affecting 3,400 people, including eight deaths, the government’s General Statistics Office (GSO) said. Experts have warned the country of worse situation of food poisoning, saying that the current fines remain too light to stop violators. (Tuoi Tre – Youth Aug 17 p9, Thanh Nien – Young People Aug 16)
