On June 23, Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Nguyen Manh Cuong signed Official Dispatch No. 5495/UBND-VX, directing relevant agencies to strengthen food safety management in the slaughtering, preliminary processing, processing, and trading of meat and meat products.
Accordingly, in recent times, several media outlets have reported signs of the production and sale of counterfeit beef, beef containing prohibited substances, and suspected cases of using chemicals to treat sow pork and pass it off as beef for consumption in Ho Chi Minh City.
In response, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee has requested the Department of Food Safety to take the lead, in coordination with the city police, the Department of Industry and Trade, the Department of Agriculture and Environment, People's Committees of wards, communes and special zones, as well as relevant agencies, in strengthening inspections and supervision of food safety in the production, preliminary processing, processing, preservation and trading of meat and meat products across the city.
The municipal Department of Industry and Trade has been tasked with directing its subordinate units to strengthen inspections and oversight of the market trading and circulation of meat and meat products. Efforts will focus on detecting, preventing, and strictly enforcing penalties for violations involving the use of prohibited substances, the trade in counterfeit and substandard goods, products of unknown origin, and fraudulent practices that misrepresent the true nature of products.
The city leadership also requested the People's Committees of wards, communes, and special zones to direct local authorities to proactively review, inspect, and monitor slaughterhouses, as well as establishments engaged in the production, preliminary processing, processing, and trading of meat and meat products. This includes traditional markets, small-scale retail outlets, cold storage facilities, food collection points, and distribution centers within their jurisdictions. Inspections and supervision will be intensified at establishments involved in the slaughtering and trading of beef, pork, sow pork, and frozen meat products.
The HCMC People's Committee assigned the Department of Food Safety to take the lead, in coordination with the city police, the Department of Culture and Sports, and relevant agencies and units, in proactively providing information and issuing press releases on matters related to food safety management. The information provided must be official, timely, objective, and within the scope of the respective authorities' responsibilities.
