Strengthening sanctions against illegal food transport and trade

Provincial authorities have recently detected and handled some cases of transport and trade of food having unknown origin, without verification of competent authorities, and stinky food…

A concern about dirty food from outside the province

Recently, at Dong Do market in (An Phu ward), provincial competent authorities detected BS 60C- 009.29 truck had abnormal behaviors, thus conducted an administrative inspection. Here, the authorities discovered nearly two tons of stinking pork. Through inspection, the driver could not present food origin certificate and quarantine certificate, thus the authorities confiscated the aforementioned pork, vehicle, and required the driver to go to the police office. At the investigation agency, driver Nguyen Duc Binh (born 1970, coming from Dong Nai) confessed, he bought that pork from pig farms in Thong Nhat district, Dong Nai province, then brought home to slaughter, transported by truck to Binh Duong to sell to traders.

Farmers pumping water and soporific into pigs were caught in Ben Cat town

Earlier, the authorities conducted unscheduled inspection at pig farm of Mr. Tran Van Khai in An Hoa quarter, Hoa Loi ward, Ben Cat town. The authorities caught these subjects pumping water into pigs to increase its weight. Total herd consisted of 218 pigs transported by three trucks from Ben Tre province to Mr. Khai’s farm, waited for pumping and then would be delivered to a food company in Binh Thanh, Ho Chi Minh City.

Joined hands from neighboring localities are needed

Mr. Tran Phu Cuong, Director of provincial Veterinary Department, said most of dirty pork detected in the province came from other provinces. To handle illegal food transport to Binh Duong and banned substance use in livestock, the department opened a telephone hotline to collect information from grassroots level. Up to now, after unscheduled inspections, the department has not detected any farm violating banned substances. However, because the province is bordered by many provinces, Binh Duong becomes a hub, and even a dirty food consumption center, causing many difficulties to handling.

Currently, Binh Duong and neighboring provinces still have regulations on cooperation to handle the transport, sale of illegal food on the market. Many people hope that on Jul 1^st 2016, when Criminal Code 2015 will take effect, sanction food safety violations by fines up to VND200 million and imprisonment up to 20 years, helping significantly to effectively handle illegal food business.

Compared with the old regulations, Article 317 of Criminal Code 2015 has stronger sanctions. However, in opinion of some lawyers, this penalty is still lightweight, not strong enough for deterrent. Lawyer Pham Cong Hung, former Judge of Supreme People's Court, said these offenders would cause a mass consequence, kill lives without a knife, thus should be sanctioned severely. The fine should be heightened up to life imprisonment or death penalty, not only up to 20 years as in the new regulations.

Apart from implementing seriously the Criminal Code 2015 and the efforts of each locality to protect people’s health, provinces and cities should have coordination regulations to handle thoroughly transportation and trading of illegal food on the market.

Reported by Phung Hieu – Translated by Ngoc Huynh