Developing a database system for tracing the origin of safe food

Traceability is one of the criteria to increase the value of agricultural products. Therefore, in recent times, Quang Ninh has strengthened the construction, completion and development of a database system for tracing the origin of safe agricultural, forestry and aquatic products in the province and achieved positive results. Thereby, helping production enterprises protect and develop their product brands, towards building ecological agriculture , modern countryside and civilized farmers.

The database system for tracing the origin of safe agricultural, forestry and aquatic products in Quang Ninh province has been deployed by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Quang Ninh since 2019 with the aim of contributing to building a chain of safe food products, ensuring transparency of the origin of agricultural products, creating trust for consumers. Up to now, the system has completed the software, with the website address: https://qn.check.net.vn. The system helps to grant management accounts to establishments such as enterprises, cooperatives, production, processing and preliminary processing establishments, and gradually expand to chain stores of agricultural products and food, concentrated production areas of the province and localities linked to the consumption of safe agricultural products; connecting with the "Agricultural, forestry and food product traceability system of Hanoi City", synchronously connecting with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development . Tracing the origin of food products electronically helps management agencies as well as consumers exercise their right to monitor and inspect; easily verify the origin of products, promptly detect counterfeit goods and goods of illegal origin; and contribute to protecting the rights and legitimate health interests of consumers.

Website interface of the database system for tracing the origin of agricultural, forestry and fishery products http://qn.check.net.vn.

To promote the effectiveness of the system, in recent times, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of the province and the consulting unit have collected, digitized, and updated data of agricultural, forestry, and fishery products in the province to the database retrieval system. Currently, the whole province has 576 establishments producing and trading agricultural, forestry, and fishery products that are subject to food safety certification and are granted login accounts and system operation; 1,346 agricultural and fishery products are granted Qr-codes (estimated at 96% of establishments); 5 login accounts and system operation are granted to 355 establishments processing agricultural and fishery products; Qr-codes are granted to 852 pre-packaged processed products (reaching 100% of statistical establishments); 90 operating accounts were granted to 90/27,401 small-scale production and business establishments that signed a commitment to produce and trade safe food (reaching 0.3% of the number of establishments counted); 96 QR codes for 96 products participating in the system; 102 establishments participating in the OCOP Program were granted login accounts and system operations; 235 QR codes were granted to 235 OCOP products that achieved stars; 02 enterprises invested in printing 11,400 QR-code origin tracing stamps.

Along with that, the propaganda and training work, dissemination of instructions on the use of the database system for tracing the origin of safe agricultural, forestry and aquatic products in the province have also been promoted by relevant units to raise people's awareness of safe agricultural, forestry and aquatic product production, building safe food production chains, thereby helping the province gradually develop a chain linking production, processing and consumption of products associated with the development of concentrated and key commodity production areas with advantages of the province. Currently, the whole province has 04 localities including Tien Yen, Binh Lieu, Ba Che, Van Don issued a Plan to maintain the database system for tracing the origin of safe agricultural, forestry and aquatic products in the province. In addition, localities have also issued official dispatches to guide the People's Committees of communes, wards and towns to log in, manage and use the origin tracing system accounts. 13/13 localities coordinated with the working group of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to support and guide the implementation of the target of 80% of processed and pre-packaged agricultural and aquatic products with traceability and updated data, using the database system for tracing the origin of safe agricultural, forestry and aquatic products in the province with over 500 participants. The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development also coordinated with the Department of Agricultural, Forestry and Fishery Product Quality Management to organize 03 training courses on guiding the management of the database system for tracing the origin of safe agricultural, forestry and aquatic products for food production and trading establishments in 03 localities of Hai Ha, Van Don, Uong Bi with 90 participants. With the above measures, the awareness of people and businesses investing in agricultural, forestry and fishery production has changed, paying more attention to food safety.

In the coming time, in order for the traceability of goods to be implemented synchronously, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and related departments and branches will continue to strengthen information, propaganda and dissemination to raise awareness for organizations and individuals about traceability activities; review and compile statistics on processed and pre-packaged products to complete the target of 80% of processed and pre-packaged agricultural and aquatic products having their origin traced using QR-code; 100% of establishments subject to the issuance of certificates of establishments meeting food safety conditions, 10% of establishments subject to signing commitments to produce and trade safe food locally participating in the traceability system and using QR-code for products; develop a list of products and key product groups to prioritize the implementation of traceability locally; strengthen state management capacity on traceability; Develop policies to encourage and support businesses to deploy a synchronous traceability system in the province; improve the quality of human resources; strengthen international cooperation on traceability.

Quang Ninh also aims to complete the database system for tracing the origin of products and goods of the province by 2030, ensuring the needs of exchanging and exploiting information of businesses, organizations and individuals in the province, domestically and internationally.

Source