VietNamNet Bridge – Ministers, Government officials and People’s Committee leaders should improve management of food safety and hygiene, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said in a recent directive.

Nguyen Tan Binh, director of the HCM City’s Department of Health, spoke to the The Labourer newspaper about plans to establish an independent food safety management agency under the People’s Committee.

 VietNamNet Bridge – HCM City’s Department of Health proposed city authorities remove all temporary markets and set up an agency to assure food safety and hygiene in the city, although it said this was a tough task.

 Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has underlined the need to identify the responsibilities of agencies concerned with food safety management, especially the role played by their chiefs.

 VietNamNet Bridge – The Department of Transport of Ha Noi has asked its inspectors to stiffen punishments of violating vehicles in order to ensure traffic safety during the Lunar New Year Festival.

 Vietnam continues to suffer food safety concerns which have worsened in the run-up to the Tet Lunar New Year festivities.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) recently announced high expectations for expanded exports of Vietnam seafood and other aquaculture exports to the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) region as a result of its formation.

The increasing overuse of chemical pesticides and fertilisers are posing more threats to farmers' health and agroproduct consumers, but authorities have never had an eye on the overwhelming consumption of the chemicals in agriculture.

 VietNamNet Bridge – A recent directive of the agriculture and rural development ministry has asked provinces and cities to strictly deal with slaughterhouses and abattoirs that do not obey food hygiene and safety regulations.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Many contagious diseases can appear and spread out on a large scale in the coming school year, such as dengue fever, hand-foot-mouth (HFM) disease, flu and newly emerging catastrophic diseases like MERS-CoV and Ebola,

 VietNamNet Bridge – Most Vietnamese people don't pay attention to nutrition, says Nguyen Thi Lam, the deputy director of the National Institute of Nutrition.

 VietNamNet Bridge – The Vietnam cashew industry stands to lose billions of US dollars as a result of the failure to establish a framework to assure product safety of internationally traded foodstuffs.  

VietNamNet Bridge - Much of Vietnam’s agricultural land has become contaminated because of the abuse of pesticides and fertilizers, and the cost to revive it could be high. 

 VietNamNet Bridge – Health experts believe that food safety is still a major problem in big cities and provinces, especially at factory canteens at industrial parks in HCM City and Binh Duong.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Hoang Thanh Van, head of the Animal Breeding Department, tells Kinh Te and Do Thi newspaper about opportunities and problems the sector will face when Viet Nam joins the TPP.

VietNamNet Bridge – Widespread abuse of pesticides was undermining food safety in the country, participants said at a recent conference on plant protection held in Hanoi.

 Bach Mai Hospital to remain open during Tet; Food-safety violators will be fined, publicly outed; Measles vaccines aim to ward off outbreaks; Seeds given to provinces hard hit by drought, storms; European scholars share experience in legal transplant

Foreign students enjoy New Year gathering in Hanoi; Food safety inspections increased ahead of Tet; Vietnam targets multi-dimensional poverty approach; NGOs offer 300mln USD-plus aid to Vietnam in 2014

 VietNamNet Bridge – The ministries of Health, Agriculture and Rural Development and Industry and Trade will increase joint food safety inspections as Tet approaches, focusing on big cities and border provinces

Food safety inspections increase for Tet holiday; Green building gets EDGE certification; Informal workers lack protection; Quang Ngai destroys 12,000 A/H5N6 infected quails; HCM City takes lead in applying multi-dimensional poverty measures