HCMC to oversee high tech-guaranteed pork with CCTV

By Thi Ha   August 6, 2016 | 03:30 pm PT
Cameras will join forces with smartphone apps in the war against unsafe food.

Ho Chi Minh City will install surveillance cameras and increase inspections at kiosks selling pork in bazaars as part of a pilot project using high tech devices, including a smartphone app and ID bands mounted to pigs, to monitor pork quality, a trade official has said.

The project, which is expected to commence in November this year, is an attempt to keep traders from blending in pork of unknown origin to sell with the safe one, said Nguyen Ngoc Hoa, vice director of the city's Department of Industry and Trade.

It is part of the “Pilot model for selling safe food in bazaars” program, initiated by the Hi-Tech Association in HCMC. The association has designed a free smartphone app that can be used to check the pork’s origin including how the pig has been raised and slaughtered.

The project is set to be experimented at 12 slaughterhouses, two wholesale bazaars, several inner-city bazaars and supermarket chains, namely Co.opmart, Satra, Vissan, An Ha and Sagrifoods. After pork, HCMC will extend the project to both vegetables and fruits.

Food safety has recently become a national issue in Vietnam.

In May, Hanoi opened three hotlines to gather information from members of the public about food safety violations. City dwellers have also taken the matter into their own hands with some growing their own vegetables and even raising pigs in their own houses. 

Related news:

Food safety offenders may face up to 20 years imprisonment

Pigs on a roof! Five ways for urbanites to survive dirty food apocalypse in Vietnam

Da Nang official urges food safety inspectors to get creative

 
 
go to top