On the morning of April 15, Dak Lak Department of Health held a conference to deploy "Month of action for food safety" in 2025.

Attending the conference were Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Thien Van; Director of the Central Highlands Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology Vien Chinh Chien; Director of the Department of Health Nay Phi La and representatives of relevant departments, branches and localities.

Delegates attending the conference.

The report at the conference said that in 2024, the province had 5 food poisoning cases with 46 people infected and hospitalized, 01 death (due to eating toad meat). The provincial authorities inspected 10,835 establishments, discovered 793 establishments violating food safety, thereby sanctioning 225 establishments with a fine of nearly 01 billion VND.

In addition to the achieved results, food safety assurance is currently facing huge challenges such as chemical residues in food products; food hygiene and safety conditions of processing facilities; difficulties in controlling fake, poor quality, and smuggled food on the market... Therefore, food safety assurance is an activity that needs to be paid attention to and implemented regularly and continuously.

Director of Health Department Nay Phi La spoke at the conference.

The “Food Safety Action Month” in 2025 with the theme “Ensuring food safety, focusing on food safety in collective kitchens, catering services and street food” will be implemented from April 15 to May 15, 2025 across the province to promote, educate, raise awareness, identify responsibilities and actions of Party committees, Party organizations, cadres, Party members and people in ensuring food security and safety; promote the role and responsibility of organizations, individuals and enterprises in enforcing food safety laws; promptly inform about safe, high-quality agricultural and food value chains, establishments violating and posing potential risks of food security and safety.

Representative of Department of Education and Training spoke at the conference.

At the same time, strengthen inspection, examination and supervision of food security and safety; resolutely combat, prevent and strictly handle organizations, individuals, production and business establishments that violate food safety regulations, especially food service establishments, collective kitchens and street food; promote the role of authorities at all levels, management agencies, social organizations and consumer supervision in compliance with food safety laws for individuals and food production and business establishments. Along with that, improve the capacity to prevent and proactively handle food poisoning and food-borne diseases at establishments with collective kitchens, food service establishments and street food; minimize poisoning due to consumption of unsafe food.

At the conference, delegates focused on discussing and clarifying the shortcomings and limitations in ensuring food hygiene and safety, administrative sanctions for food safety violations, supervision and management of collective kitchens and street food, etc.

Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Thien Van spoke at the conference.

Speaking at the conference, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Thien Van requested that sectors, levels and localities focus on effectively implementing the direction of the Provincial People's Committee on implementing the "Month of action for food safety" in 2025, in which attention should be paid to the management of food establishments that are not subject to the issuance of a certificate of food safety eligibility, such as food establishments without a business registration certificate, collective kitchens without a food business registration, street food establishments, etc. because these establishments have many risks of causing food insecurity due to lack of control. Along with that, it is necessary to innovate propaganda methods on food hygiene and safety, especially for people in remote areas, extremely difficult areas, and areas with many ethnic minorities.

In addition, functional sectors need to strengthen inspection and administrative sanctions for violations of food safety, ensuring deterrence, so that food production and trading establishments change their behavior in ensuring food safety and preventing food poisoning.

The People's Committees of districts, towns and cities direct relevant agencies and units to strengthen inspection of food safety conditions for mobile cooking services and housekeeping services in the area, absolutely not allowing establishments that have not been granted a certificate of food safety eligibility to provide services to people...