| Sumario: | Food-borne disease is a major public health issue in Vietnam.
The contamination of popular foods such as pork and vegetables
can occur all along the food chain. It is important to understand
how and where food safety issues arise to mitigate and prevent
food-borne diseases. In Vietnam, risk assessment is an innovative
tool for managing food safety, however it is rarely applied and
the capacity for application is still lacking. Here we describe the
development of a national taskforce for food safety risk assessment
to assist policy makers and researchers in managing food
safety issues.
A taskforce of risk assessment for food safety was formed and
consists of researchers in Vietnam working on risk assessment
and food safety, and representatives of the Ministry of Health
(MOH) and Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
(MARD). The taskforce first analysed the situation of food safety
policy in Vietnam. Key constraints and areas where research and
development interventions could assist policy were identified.
Stakeholder workshops were conducted to determine scope of
activities and prioritize food safety issues. A series of hands-on
training with a focus on case studies of risk assessment for food
safety were organised to strengthen the risk assessment capacity
of taskforce members and of policy makers.
Case studies were conducted to
(i) assess health risks of vegetables and fish grown/caught in
wastewater;
(ii) assess health risks related to antibiotic residues in pork;
and
(iii) interact with stakeholders, disseminate research results
and advocate for the use of risk assessment as a tool for food
safety management.
Health risks from these case studies were quantitatively
assessed and risk communication and management strategies
developed. Achievements of the task force to date include handson
training of policymakers, line managers, and researchers; case
studies of risk assessment that were published in a special edition
in a Vietnamese journal; and creation of policy briefs. The taskforce
was also requested to run training for veterinary professionals
of MARD and plans to become a technical group in risk
assessment recognized nationally by MOH and MARD. Our
next step was to enable risk-based approaches to be easier to use
and adaptable to the local context. The taskforce could benefit
from the support of ministries, for example, in its institutionalization
and subsequently in supporting a series of training for
taskforce members and policy makers.
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