Poster by Hung Nguyen-Viet, Lucila Lapar, Seth de Vlieger, Nancy Johnson and Delia Grace at the 4th annual Leverhulme Centre for Integrative Research on Agriculture and Health (LCIRAH) conference, 3-4 June 2014, London, UK.

1. Supporting Agriculture and Health Ministries
to implement a national food safety policy
based on risk-based approaches in Vietnam
Nguyen Viet Hung1,2, Ma. Lucila Lapar1, Seth de Vlieger1, Nancy Johnson3, Delia Grace1
1 Food Safety Zoonoses Program, International Livestock Research Institute, Hanoi, Vietnam
2 SwissTPH and CENPHER/Hanoi School of Public Health , 3 CRP A4NH, International Food Policy
Research Institute, Washington DC, USA
Introduction
Risk analysis is considered the gold-standard approach
for rational management of food safety. However in
Vietnam capacity is lacking in practical application,
especially in the informal markets, where the majority
of domestically produced food is bought and sold.
We work with the Ministries and researchers to
strengthen the capacity of assessment and
management of food safety using risk assessment
adapted to the informal markets of Vietnam and
present findings on results and lessons learned.
Methods
A taskforce of risk assessment for food
safety comprises researchers in Vietnam
working on risk assessment and food safety
from key universities, research institutes
and representatives of the Ministry of
Health (MOH) and Ministry of Agriculture
and Rural Development (MARD).
Analyses of food safety policy in Vietnam
and how research evidence informs policy.
Twenty experts and policy makers in food
safety were interviewed.
Stakeholder workshops were conducted to
identify the scope of activities and priority
issues in food safety formulated by policy
makers that the taskforce works on.
A series of training and follow-up along
with case studies of risk assessment for
food safety were held to strengthen the
risk assessment capacity of the taskforce
members and of the policy makers in food
safety management.
Pictures
Next steps
Our next step is to make risk-based approaches easier to use
and adapted to local context.
The taskforce could benefit from the support of the ministries,
for example in its institutionalization and subsequently in
conducting a series of training for the taskforce members and
policy makers.
Plans to become a technical group nationally recognized by
MOH and MARD in risk assessment.
Outputs
• Publication of a special edition of
risk assessment in a Vietnamese
journal;
• Policy briefs developed in
Vietnamese and English.
• Two trainings for veterinary
professionals of MARD
• Two case studies of risk
assessment
Hung Nguyen
h.nguyen@cgiar.org ● ILRI Vietnam ● +84 973445050
17a Nguyen Khang, Trung Hoa, Cau Giay, Hanoi, Vietnam ● ilri.org
This project was funded by CRP A4NH
This document is licensed for use under a Creative Commons Attribution –Non commercial-Share Alike 3.0
Unported License June 2012
June 2014
Findings
Food safety management had an enabling
environment in Vietnam with many national
regulations, agriculture, health and trade
ministries involved, and a decentralized system
of management from central to commune.
However, there was a large gap between
regulation and its implementation in practice.
Although food safety managers explicitly
wished to use risk-based approaches, these
were not adequately understood by food chain
actors. Policy makers lack trust in research
evidence for food safety policy making.