The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) officially launched Food Safety Week at the Hanoi-based Big C Thang Long supermarket on December 8.

The Week is held nationwide as a highlight of the Action Program for Food Safety 2022 and is being jointly organized by ministries and sectors from the central to local level, associations, producers, distributors, and traders of safe food products.

Activities aim to increase the volume of Vietnamese products being sold in supermarkets owned by foreign enterprises in Vietnam, to promote Vietnamese products abroad, and to organize national trade promotion events.

Of note, MoIT works closely with ministries and sectors to supervise, inspect, and end the production and trade of fake, poor-quality, and smuggled goods of unknown origin.

Deputy Director General of MoIT’s Domestic Markets Department Le Viet Nga said the program has helped expand markets for Vietnamese products and increased the supply of farm produce and foodstuff, especially safe varieties, to the modern retail network.

“Food safety and hygiene management is a tough and long-term task, so needs to have the involvement of all components of the community to act for sake of all consumers,” she said.

Mr. Le Manh Phong, CEO of Central Retail Vietnam’s Big C/Go! supermarket chain in the north, said that every day Big C serves quality, safe products at competitive prices to over 390,000 customers in some 40 localities nationwide.

More than 90 per cent of goods sold at Big C supermarkets are of Vietnamese origin. The Group targets developing and selling safe products from various regions in the country, he added.