The Prime Minister of Vietnam requests to ensure food safety during the Lunar New Year and Spring Festival in 2025 in Vietnam

The Prime Minister of Vietnam requests to ensure food safety during the Lunar New Year and Spring Festival in 2025 in Vietnam​ (Image from the internet)

On January 22, 2025, the Prime Minister of the Government of Vietnam issued Official Telegram 05/CD-TTg regarding the assurance of food safety during the Lunar New Year and Spring Festival in 2025 in Vietnam.

The Prime Minister of Vietnam requests to ensure food safety during the Lunar New Year and Spring Festival in 2025 in Vietnam

To ensure food safety and prevent food poisoning during the Lunar New Year and the Spring Festivals 2025, providing citizens with a safe and healthy celebration, the Prime Minister of the Government of Vietnam requires Ministers, Heads of Agencies, Chairpersons of the People’s Committees of provinces and central-affiliated cities to focus on directing the synchronous, decisive, and effective implementation of tasks and solutions to ensure food safety according to their functions, tasks, and authority, with particular attention to the following key points:

(1) Ministries: Health, Agriculture and Rural Development, Industry and Trade:

- Based on their assigned functions, tasks, and authorities, focus on directing information and propaganda activities about the risk of food safety loss, measures to ensure food safety, and prevention of food poisoning; emphasize propagating penalties for violations. Strengthen inspections, strictly handle, and publicize organizations and individuals violating food safety regulations.

- Ministry of Health: Direct prompt emergency and treatment measures for individuals suffering food poisoning; prepare emergency plans, hospital beds, facilities, and are ready to treat patients during crowded events, and mass food poisonings.

- Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development: Guide farmers, crop, and livestock facilities, collection, preliminary processing, slaughter, processing, and preservation of agricultural and fishery products to comply with food safety regulations; strengthen inspections and strictly handle violations of food safety, focusing on inspecting foods with high consumption levels during the Lunar New Year festival and spring festivals such as sausages, spring rolls, vegetables, fruits, livestock, poultry, and seafood.

- Ministry of Industry and Trade: Strengthen control over the production, business, and use of alcohol and beer; enhance inspections, prevent fake and fraudulent foods, focusing on items with high consumer demand during Lunar New Year, the festival season.

(2) Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of National Defense: Direct the police forces, border guards to cooperate with customs, market management, and relevant agencies to strengthen control, prevention, and strict handling of illegal food imports across borders, counterfeit, substandard, and unidentified origin food production, transportation, and trade violations.

(3) Ministry of Information and Communications: Direct central and local press and broadcasting agencies to increase broadcast time, intensify propaganda, introduce measures to ensure food safety, safe food production, and trading models, media products, and spread knowledge on recognizing and preventing food poisoning risks.

(4) Recommend Vietnam Fatherland Front, Vietnam Women's Union, Vietnam Farmers' Union participate in communication, monitoring food safety assurance activities in residential areas; promptly detect and prevent actions involving the production and trade of counterfeit, substandard food.

(5) People's Committees of provinces and central-affiliated cities:

- Increase the dissemination of laws, knowledge on food safety; mobilize people to change outdated eating habits during festivals and Lunar New Year; avoid eating sick, dead livestock or poultry, unidentified origins, uncertified, raw blood pudding, and uncooked food; refrain from drinking homemade alcohol infused with plants, roots, animal organs, animal bile, and alcohol of unknown origin, which can cause alcohol poisoning, methanol, and other toxins from substances soaked in alcohol; avoid excessive alcohol consumption during Lunar New Year and festivals.

- Strengthen inter-sectoral inspections on food safety regulations; increase the frequency of unexpected inspections of food production and trading facilities at high risk, wholesale markets, livestock and poultry slaughterhouses, meat, fish, jam, cake, candy, alcohol production, and trading facilities, etc. Firmly suspend operations of violators, recall and dispose of unsafe food according to regulations.

- Local governments in major urban areas, places with festivals attracting a large crowd, must enhance food safety control, conduct unexpected checks on food service business establishments, street food vendors, food businesses at Lunar New Year and spring festival areas, readying plans, forces, and equipment to effectively implement measures addressing and mitigating the consequences of food safety incidents, mass food poisonings in the locality.

The Chairpersons of the People's Committees at all levels are responsible for major food safety incidents, food poisonings occurring in their jurisdiction.

Official Telegram 05/CD-TTg issued on January 22, 2025.

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