Practical compliance with regulations of food safety of fresh food business at Cho market, Yen Phong district, Bac Ninh province in 2013

Abstract

Vietnamese people now mainly buy food from their local markets. General goods are sold at the market in disordered and uncontrolled manner, leading to problem of food, especially fresh food contamination which is now an alarming threat. This paper is aimed at assessing fresh food vendors' compliance with some regulations of food safety at Cho market, Yen Phong district, Bac Ninh province. A cross-sectional, analytical study using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods was conducted from 12/2012 to 07/2013. All fresh food vendors (98 people) were interviewed with checklists and questionnaires to collect information based on regulations / guidelines to ensure food hygiene and safety in food stalls issued by Ministries and the Government. Results show that 29.4 % of vendors practice proper food safety as prescribed. It is recommended that communication on regulations to ensure food safety at food trading facilities should be enhanced while supervision and enforcement on observation of those regulations should be strengthened by state management agencies.