Ensuring food safety

The Food Safety and Hygiene Department inspected the Nguyen Trung Truc Communal House area. Photo: HANH CHAU

At noon on October 10, at Nguyen Trung Truc Communal House area, people set up tents, preparing rice and water camps to serve people. Along with that, some stoves were lit to cook rice and vegetarian food for those who came to serve. Mr. Nguyen Phuoc Hoa, a member of the Management Board of the Nguyen Trung Truc Tomb and Communal House Historical and Cultural Relic, said: "Last year there were only 3 rice camps, this year there have increased to 25 rice and water camps, banh xeo, more than 2,300 people serving, most of them are people from An Giang and Can Tho City. The festival takes place over 3 main days, but many people came to Nguyen Communal House in advance. Therefore, the rice camps have to cook and entertain people for up to 8 days. From 5am to 11pm, the rice camps are ready to serve people throughout the festival. To ensure food safety, the Relic Management Board has arranged forces and coordinated with medical staff to check and take food samples, clearly stating the date and name of the rice camp according to regulations."

Every year, the rice camps serve more than 1 million free vegetarian meals to the people. The festival is like a Southern death anniversary, food is brought from everywhere, whoever has vegetables brings vegetables, whoever has tubers brings tubers, whoever has rice brings rice... cooks together, offers them to worship, and enjoys the blessings of Mr. Nguyen. "To ensure food safety and hygiene in the festival kitchen, we focus on processing vegetables, tubers, and fruits that are fresh, not crushed; washed many times under running water; dried foods must have labels and expiration dates. Food is cooked and served immediately, if not used, we leave it on the stove day and night to serve the people", said Ms. Nguyen Thi Nga, a server at the rice camp.

People enjoy free delicious food at Nguyen Trung Truc Communal House. Photo: HANH CHAU

Nguyen Trung Truc Festival attracts a large number of people from inside and outside the province to participate. Therefore, people's demand for food and drink before and during the festival increases. Therefore, ensuring food safety is a top priority. Doctor Chung Tan Thinh - Deputy Director of the Department of Health said that ensuring food safety is an important task to protect people's health when participating in the festival. The Department of Health is assigned to monitor the epidemic situation, prepare means and resources to handle emergency medical situations; ensure food safety, and prevent food poisoning from occurring during the festival.

The Department of Health requests the Food Safety and Hygiene Sub-Department to preside over and coordinate with the Center for Disease Control and Rach Gia Medical Center to strengthen inspection and supervision of food production and trading establishments, catering services, collective kitchens, and mobile kitchens. Check compliance with food safety regulations; ensure maintenance of food safety conditions, take food samples for testing when necessary, and prevent food poisoning from occurring during the festival. Along with that, medical teams must be on duty 24/7 at assigned locations, ensuring smooth communication. Be ready to provide emergency aid and promptly handle health emergencies, accidents, and food poisoning that may occur.

According to the Department of Health, in recent years, ensuring food safety has faced many difficulties due to the large number of tourists, while people's awareness of environmental hygiene and food safety is not good. There are many mobile charity kitchens, some of which do not have food safety certificates. Infrastructure (clean water, sanitation) in the festival area has not been able to fully and promptly meet the large number of people. Street food has not been strictly controlled, and the risk of food safety loss is high. The specialized force in charge of food safety management cannot monitor the outbreak points of sale 24/7.

Faced with that situation, Dr. Nguyen Thanh Nam - Head of the Provincial Food Safety and Hygiene Department said: "To prepare for the 2025 festival, the Department has stepped up communication to raise people's vigilance, choose to use safe food, with clear origin and source, and have clean food processing and preservation processes. Food service establishments and street food establishments must ensure clean sources of ingredients, have invoices and documents to prove origin, use clean water to process food and comply with food safety regulations during food processing and preservation. Regularly inspect, detect, guide food safety measures, and strictly handle establishments that deliberately violate."

HANH CHAU

Source: https://baoangiang.com.vn/dam-bao-an-toan-thuc-pham-a463972.html