The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Food Safety was established in accordance with Resolution 98/2023/QH15 on special mechanisms and policies for the development of the city.
Director of the Food Safety Department of Ho Chi Minh City, Pham Khanh Phong Lan, had a discussion with a reporter from Sai Gon Giai Phong (SGGP) Newspaper about the department's tasks on food safety in the new phase after restructuring and streamlining the state organizational apparatus.
According to Director of the Food Safety Department of Ho Chi Minh City, Pham Khanh Phong Lan, the city’s Department of Food Safety was the predecessor of the Food Safety Management Board of the city, which was established in December 2016. After seven years of operating, the city announced the prime minister’s decision to conclude the pilot operation of the Ho Chi Minh City Food Safety Management Board and establish the municipal Department of Food Safety.
Currently, the Food Safety Department has successfully controlled food safety risks in the city and has also developed proactive measures to address potential future risks.
For example, regarding food hygiene and safety in collective kitchens in schools, businesses, and restaurants, preventive measures and controls for food safety must be implemented since enterprises provide goods in supermarkets, convenience stores, and wholesale markets. These systems are regularly monitored by authorities who collect food samples for inspection and supervision.
In addition, collective kitchens need to improve knowledge of food hygiene and safety and comply with sanitation conditions, food facilities, and one-way food processing procedures; use ingredients with a clear origin, meet standards, and materials from safe food chains. Food poisoning would not happen if collective kitchens ensured these factors.
In addition, the Food Safety Department and the Department of Education and Training, in collaboration with local authorities, regularly organize inspection teams to assess compliance with food safety regulations in collective kitchens in schools to protect the health of students.
In 2024, the Food Safety Department collected thousands of food samples for testing, but the violation rate was very low and decreased compared to the previous year. The number of food poisoning incidents in the city has also steadily decreased, demonstrating that the locality is successfully controlling the situation.
Regarding widespread fear of food poisoning and the uncontrolled and unorganized street food sector, the Director of the Food Safety Department of Ho Chi Minh City said that it has not yet controlled food safety and hygiene of street vendors, preventing food poisoning, and addressed the formation of spontaneous markets and online food selling. It needs time and collaboration among departments and local authorities to solve these problems. Ho Chi Minh City established a special task force to coordinate with the Food Safety Department to handle the spontaneous trading points in the city.
Currently, the Food Safety Department is monitoring and controlling online food sales. However, the department has not yet thoroughly addressed details due to the lack of regulations on managing food sales on social media and e-commerce platforms.
She hoped that relevant industries, especially the industry and trade sector, would issue more stringent regulations soon to control online trading, ensure safety for consumers, and protect their rights.
Answering questions on activities of the Food Safety Department that are not as effective as has been expected, Ms. Pham Khanh Phong Lan acknowledged that the Food Safety Department has not yet been operated effectively due to the challenges of human resources. When the Food Safety Management Board was established, it had 488 staff members, but the Food Safety Department now only has 361 officials. The number of employees will be decreased by 20 percent in the coming time.
Several solutions have been implemented to address this challenge, the most important being the application of information technology in license granting and food safety management. Currently, the Food Safety Department has implemented 100 percent of administrative procedures carried out through online public services on the city's administrative procedure resolution system. The food safety teams in districts have accounted for about two-thirds of the workforce to coordinate with local authorities to monitor the situation in the localities.
In reality, the Food Safety Department still lacks sufficient manpower and capacity to detect and address food safety violations in a timely manner.
Regarding solutions to ensure food safety and criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of the Food Safety Department’s activities, she said that with the goal of “Ensuring clean food, fighting food contamination,” the department is implementing several projects and programs, such as the "Project on Managing, Identifying, and Tracing the Origins of Pork, Poultry Meat, and Eggs," the "Safe Food Chain," and the "Pilot Model of Safe Food Markets."
In 2025, the Food Safety Department has continued to carry out food safety monitoring and enhance the capacity of the food safety management system; prevent acute food poisoning; strengthen inspections; and impose strict fines for violations.
Criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of the Food Safety Department’s activities include strengthening inspections and imposing strict fines for violations; reducing the number of acute food poisoning cases; increasing consumption of clean food; raising the number of food samples for verification and lowering the violation rate.
