At the media workshop “Food Safety and Importance of Science Communications” (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – As food safety has reached the headlines in recent years, science communications has played an increasing role in helping consumers make their proper choices, said Standing Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Journalists Association (VJA) Ho Quang Loi.
At a media workshop “Food Safety and Importance of Science Communications” jointly held by the VJA and CropLife Vietnam on November 26, Loi laid stress on the media’s significant contributions to raising public awareness of food safety and nutrition while pointing out that the media can easily take the profit motive out of news by popularising gross distortion.
Providing the participants with principals to evaluate food safety for agricultural inputs, Jason Sandahl, a Food Safety Technical Advisor from the US Department of Agriculture, clarified information on plant protection chemicals, including maximum residue level (MRL) and acceptable daily intake (ADI).
He said that the failure to give the public accurate information is a constant source of worry as it leads to misunderstanding that “pesticides are not safe”.
Sandahl stressed that advanced plant protection measures are crucial to ensure sufficient food for the population across the five continents.
According to Country Director of Syngenta Foundation in Vietnam Dao Xuan Cuong, who was also a representative from CropLife Vietnam, some 24.5 million Vietnamese farmers depend on plant protection methods to prevent diseases from crops. Imports of low-quality products and shortage of traceability are believed to affect food safety.
The communications work should pay due attention to changing farmers’ cultivation habits as well as increasing their consciousness of safe agricultural production chain, Cuong added.-VNA
VNA
