Hanoi - The authorities in Vietnam have fined 5,000
companies for violating food safety regulations, state media reported
Wednesday.
Inspections of 20,000 companies from April 15 to May 15 revealed
5,000 of them breaking rules on food safety and hygiene, the Lao Dong
(Labour) newspaper quoted sources from the Ministry of Trade and
Industry as saying.
The companies were fined a total of 1.8 billion dong (105,000
dollars) and 89 products were destroyed, the newspaper said.
Many Vietnamese companies are small, so their compliance with food
safety and hygiene is very limited compared to bigger enterprises
that have better facilities, said Nguyen Cong Khan, head of the Food
Safety and Hygiene Department of the Health Ministry.
'The most common violations are contaminated work areas,' Khan
said. 'There are also discrepancies between the actual quality of the
product and the quality registered with the authorities, as well as
the incorrect use of trademarks.'
Quality standards for foodstuffs are different for domestic
consumption and export.
Khan said his department was tightening inspections so common
standards could eventually be applied to products on both the
domestic and foreign markets.
'It is unfair to apply two different standards for one product,'
Khan said.
In the first quarter of this year, the country reported 186 cases
of food poisoning, including two fatalities, according to the Food
Safety and Hygiene Department.
It is a dramatic improvement from last year, which saw nearly
8,000 cases of food poisoning with 61 deaths.
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