Food safety is of particular concern to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) as well as the Government, said MARD Deputy Minister Nguyen Thi Xuan Thu.

Thu made the statement at a seminar in Hanoi on June 26 that focuses on building and developing safe chains of food supply.

The seminar was jointly held by the MARD, the International Support Group and the “Food and Agricultural Product Quality Development and Control” (FAPQDC) project funded by the Canadian Government.

In the past, unsafe agricultural products have significantly eroded consumer confidence, Thu said.

Therefore, in order to build safer chains of supply, the ministry will work closely with relevant agencies from production to distribution, she added.

The seminar is part of the FAPQDC project, which lasts from 2008 to March, 2013 with the aim to improve the quality, safety and appeal of agricultural products by applying ‘good production practices’ (GPP) and ‘quality control systems’.

To ease consumer worries over unsafe agricultural products in the market place, Nguyen Xuan Hong, Head of the MARD’s Plant Protection Department, said that Vietnam has the capacity to control the level of chemicals in its agricultural products.

However, he suggested that consumers should only buy products that clearly state their origin and have been inspected.-VNA