On the night of August 14, the Ho Chi Minh City Council’s Culture and Society Committee, in collaboration with the city’s Food Safety Department and relevant agencies, conducted an inspection of food safety management at the Thu Duc Agricultural Products Wholesale Market.
Mr. Cao Thanh Binh, Head of the Culture and Society Committee, led the delegation to various stalls to examine documents such as origin certificates, phytosanitary certificates, and labels on packaging. However, most of the inspected stalls failed to provide the required paperwork and gave various excuses to avoid doing so.
Imported fruits at a stall lacking labels and proper documentation
For instance, the manager of Thao Loi stall, which specializes in imported fruits such as grapes, apples, and pears, stated that the owner was not present, and the secretary in charge of the books and import documents had already left for the day. They promised to provide the necessary paperwork the following day.
“I’m just the manager here, and most of our goods are on consignment. I don’t have access to those certificates; only the owner or the secretary does,” the manager explained.
Next door, the staff at Phuong Hung stall also claimed that the owner was absent. They admitted to not having labels and not possessing import documents as they sourced their products from a domestic company named An Minh.
The staff member tried to contact the company, but even after more than 10 minutes, they were unable to provide documents such as phytosanitary certificates and invoices.
Similarly, in the section selling domestic fruits and vegetables, many vendors could not present phytosanitary certificates and invoices to verify the origin of their products. Instead, they offered text messages or handwritten books as proof of their transactions with suppliers or farmers.
At the conclusion of the inspection, Mr. Nguyen Minh Nhut, Vice Chairman of the Culture and Society Committee, remarked that several issues had surfaced during the survey. He noted that food safety management at the market was not very effective and was still largely manual.
Furthermore, he pointed out that the vendors were evasive and uncooperative. As a result, he instructed the market management board to restructure and digitize their operations to meet the requirements.
“We were unable to conduct a thorough inspection. The market management board needs to be more assertive and cooperative with relevant authorities to raise the vendors’ awareness of food safety. Additionally, the market’s infrastructure is inadequate, which further increases the risk of food safety hazards,” Mr. Nhut stated.
Mr. Cao Thanh Binh inspecting the documents
Vendor showing text messages as proof of origin
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