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A stall to sell street food |
The case once again sounds the alarm about unsafe street foods. Around schools, industrial parks, and hospital gates in Ho Chi Minh City, street vendors and carts selling all kinds of ready-made food and drinks are easily seen.
Many food stalls only temporarily use a few plastic sheets carelessly while others are even not covered, despite the smoke, dust, and flies. Some food stalls are placed next to the pile of trash.
Even though buyers, mostly workers, know that food safety is not guaranteed, they still eat to continue working in time. Employee Nguyen Hung Cuong of PouYuen Vietnam Company in Binh Tan District said that he eats street food for work though he knows the food is unhygienic.
According to statistics from the Hanoi Department of Health, the city currently has more than 76,800 food production and business establishments including 10,000 street food establishments.
According to the Food Safety Management Board in Ho Chi Minh City, more than 13,500 street food businesses citywide with about 15,850 vendors.
When it comes to street food safety and why people still eat unsafe food, Head of the Ho Chi Minh City Food Safety Management Board Pham Khanh Phong Lan said that people still eat street food because of the low prices of this kind of food; however, besides the above advantages, there are unpredictable dangers for consumers' health.
She revealed through inspection and supervision at establishments to sell food, business owners’ compliance with food safety regulations is not high.
Associate Professor Nguyen Thi Lam, former Deputy Director of the National Institute of Nutrition, said that the risk of street food causing harm to consumers' health is very high, because it is processed with different types of food of unknown origin. In the long term, consuming unsafe foods will affect the body's metabolism, easily causing cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and obesity.
According to the Ministry of Health’s regulations, food traders must ensure 10 food hygiene and safety standards including enough clean water, and having tools to pick up cooked food. Moreover, business establishment owners must be trained on the safety of food and they must undergo periodical medical checkups.
Additionally, food processing places must be clean, separate from sources of pollution such as sewers, garbage, sanitation facilities, and places where livestock and poultry are displayed and sold. Food sellers must wear aprons, and face masks. That's the regulation, but most street vendors, carts, and sidewalk eateries today do not meet the above standards.
Deputy Director of the Food Safety Department under the Ministry of Health Nguyen Hung Long said that each year, about 1,000 cases of food poisoning occur nationwide, of which the majority are due to using food contaminated with dangerous bacteria such as E.coli, cholera, and typhoid. To ensure food safety of street food, vendors’ awareness must be high and each consumer must have knowledge of food safety because management agencies cannot detect everything. Furthermore, they should promptly notify management agencies about restaurants that do not comply with food safety conditions.
