Quality food safety in reach

With a continuing series of activities in support of improving Vietnamese enterprises’ competitiveness in agricultural and dairy products,  the SAFE VIETNAM  project, funded by TUV Rheinland Group and DEG (German  Development  Finance  Institute) in collaboration with Asia Society for Social Improvement and Sustainable Transformation (ASSIST), has been conducting a  software toolkit  for “self-implementation of a food safety management system”. In particular, the information and documents are associated in a compact and clear structure, to help users find and access information easily.

The toolkit’s launch will be an effective solution to mitigate current business problems. During the project, members said that they had difficulties in updating regulations, standards and new knowledge relating to food hygiene and safety. 

Acknowledging this concern, the Project Management Board decided the toolkit’s content would be a quality food safety management model according to ISO 22000:2007 and TCVN 5603:2008. The technical documents relate to quality of food hygiene and safety, the regulations relate to standards and technical testing methods for agricultural and dairy products, the legal documents relate to the quality of food hygiene and safety and training materials for Food Safety Awareness, Food Safety Professionals, Food Safety Managers and materials to train the trainers.

In addition, guidelines for self-assessment have been built-in as a part of the toolkit to help producers strengthen the quality of their company-controlled activities. The toolkit is available on CD, as well as at www.safevn.vn to create more convenience for users and a diverse number of people interested in accessing the toolkit. To download the documents from the website, users need a login account. The Project Management Board will provide accounts for people in the agricultural and dairy product fields.

In addition to the 34 companies involved in the project, the toolkit has also been given to other firms in the industry. Some companies outside the industry also expressed their interest in receiving the toolkit for their reference, to improve their knowledge of food hygiene and safety, and to use the training materials to train officers and employees who work directly with food. 

Specifically, firms in the fields of textiles, leather shoes, and food container production have adapted the toolkit. This reveals that food hygiene and safety issues have become increasingly important in manufacturing and the sustainable development of Vietnamese enterprises.

It can be said that the toolkit is a means of great support for businesses to build their own food hygiene and safety management systems or apply prerequisite programmes to improve their ability in supplying safe food to consumers. From the toolkit, users can find more valuable guides through legal documents, standards, regulations and other instructional documents.

Based on actual producing ability and personnel, producers can determine which contents in the toolkit to be applied. This serves as a flexible means to enhance the autonomy and self-renewal of enterprises and improve the actual situation of food hygiene and safety management. 

The toolkit also creates a multipliable effect in improving the awareness and knowledge of food hygiene and safety, creating impacts and widely influencing on the fields of food safety and hygiene throughout the country. Helping manufacturers become more aware about food hygiene and safety throughout the entire supply chain, creates quality products.

With updated and practical information, the content of the toolkit will bring much new value for users, upgrade understanding, improve the ability to apply food hygiene and safety standards throughout the system, and contribute to meet the expectations of existing markets and allow Vietnamese enterprises to approach potential international markets.