CAN THO – The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has issued a decision, creating a food safety control program for Siluriformes fish and fish products being exported to the United States, to help Vietnam’s Siluriformes inspection system meet the requirements of the United States.
The decision is expected to take effect on July 7, 45 days after it was released on May 22.
The program regulates inspection conditions and activities conducted by Vietnamese authorities to ensure food safety measures are fully executed at facilities that raise, transport, slaughter/process and preserve Siluriformes fish and fish products, mainly tra fish, for export to the United States.
Apart from these facilities, the control program applies to agencies associated with monitoring food safety for the exported products and labs that analyze and apply food safety criteria to tra fish bound for the United States.
The program also includes regulations on procedures to register for, review and issue certificates for batches of tra fish being shipped stateside.
The National Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Assurance Department (Nafiqad) will appoint labs to join analysis and testing activities, as regulated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
In addition, units responsible for monitoring compliance with food safety regulations during the transport, processing, preservation and export of tra fish are stipulated in the program.
In related news, the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), under the U.S. Department of Agriculture has postponed its business trip to Vietnam to evaluate the Asian country’s tra fish food safety control system due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Ngo Hong Phong, deputy head of Nafiqad, stated that FSIS had released an announcement on November 12 last year recognizing that Vietnam’s food safety control system for tra fish is equivalent to that of the United States.
By Trung Chanh
