Ho Chi Minh City has recently recorded multiple cases of food poisoning, causing dozens of students to be hospitalised and raising concerns about food safety during the hot season.
As the heat begins to intensify, carts and street vendors crowd school gates or spill over onto the streets, posing challenges to street food management.
Nguyen Van Quyen, a street vendor near a school in D8 Street in Phu My Ward, District 7, said that to save money, he often buys ingredients at the market and processes them the night before, or early in the morning.
Similarly, Huynh Ngoc Hoa, who sells fried balls at the school gate in Tan Binh District, said: “I buy ingredients from local markets near my house. As to whether the food is traceable, I am not sure.”
Nguyen Thi Thanh Kien, the mother of a student at a school in District 3, said that normally, she will wake up early to prepare a healthy breakfast for the whole family.
However, on busy days, or when she wants her children to try something new, she allows them to buy their own breakfast outside of their school.
Although she still gives them permission to do so, she worries about the quality of such foods.
Many parents say that they do not feel very assured about the quality of the food sold around schools, especially as many students have suffered food poisoning, vomiting or diarrhoea after eating things they have bought at school gates.
To minimise the risk of contaminated food entering the school, school boards and teachers remind students to limit the consumption of food of unknown origin, but find it difficult to manage the street vendors.
To protect the health of consumers, especially students, after the recent food poisoning cases, specialised forces in Thu Duc City and districts of the city have stepped up inspections at areas with many mobile eateries and densely populated residential areas, to correct vendors who encroach on pavements or do business in inappropriate areas.
These forces also actively encourage businesses to wear gloves and masks, and use food storage cabinets to limit the risk of bacterial contamination when delivering food to consumers.
The Food Safety Department said it will continue to implement food monitoring programmes in raw material areas, take samples to monitor goods at markets and promote food traceability programmes at wholesale markets.
The department will also encourage street vendors to use food with clear origins and preservation methods, and strictly handle violations to prevent unsafe food from entering the market. — Vietnam News/ANN
