Ensuring food safety during 2026 Lunar New Year

Lunar New Year is an important occasion for people to gather, enjoy special dishes, and participate in many festive activities. This boosts food consumption demand, leading to the risk of food safety (FS) violations.

A healthcare worker at Dong Nai Provincial Testing Center perform food testing on a specialized vehicle. Photo: Hanh Dung

To ensure food safety during the Lunar New Year and the 2026 Spring Festival season, the province's functional agencies have planned to carry out propaganda, inspection, and examination activities to detect and strictly handle FS violations.

The risk of food poisoning is always latent

The Ministry of Health and relevant agencies assess that the number of food poisoning cases often increases after the Lunar New Year holiday due to improper food preparation and preservation, long-term food storage, or the use of ingredients of unknown origin. If not strictly controlled, this will directly affect people's health, especially children, the elderly, and those with chronic diseases

Vice Director of the Department of Health Vo Thi Ngoc Lam stated: Dong Nai province has a large population, and food consumption demand increases significantly at the end of the year, with bustling food processing and trading activities. However, the awareness of complying with FS laws and the sense of responsibility towards the community of a segment of food producers and traders are not high, still prioritizing profit. Some celebrities exploit social media to market unverified food. Illegal animal slaughter and the sale of animal products that do not meet veterinary hygiene standards occur in many places, leading to the risk of not meeting FS.

Tran Hung, Vice Chairman of Trang Dai Ward People's Committee, said: There are currently over 300 conditional food production and business establishments in the ward. The population in the ward is mostly young, so food consumption demand is very high, especially during holidays and Tet. To ensure FS during the upcoming Lunar New Year, the ward has planned to implement activities focusing on propaganda and inspection of establishments producing and trading foods with high consumption during Tet.

Mai Thi Thu Lan (residing in Tan Trieu Ward) shared: Every year, around the Lunar New Year, her family has a habit of stocking up on food. The types of food Mai buys a lot include: various meats, candies, Vietnamese pork sausage, vegetables, dried seafood, beer, wine, and soft drinks.

"In recent days, through following the news, I've seen authorities detect many FS violations, which makes me very worried. I don't know if the food I buy is truly safe and if I should stock up on as much food as before," Lan wondered.

Strengthening inspections and penalizing violations

To ensure FS during the Lunar New Year and the 2026 Spring Festival season, the Dong Nai Provincial Inter-sectoral Steering Committee on FS has issued a plan to implement activities across the province from January 5 to March 25, 2026. The key task is to strengthen inspection and supervision at food production and business establishments, food service establishments, street food vendors, and collective kitchens. Special attention will be paid to food items consumed in large quantities during Tet, such as: meat and meat products, candies, jams, vegetables, soft drinks, alcoholic beverages, food additives, etc.

Inspection teams will not only check documents and legal procedures but also inspect hygienic conditions, origin of ingredients, food preservation and handling, processing equipment and tools, as well as methods of food inspection and sample retention to promptly detect violations; especially acts of using unauthorized additives, expired food, and food of unknown origin.

Besides the awareness and ethics of food producers and traders, every citizen should be a smart consumer; it is necessary to wisely choose reputable and licensed food vendors. When choosing food, it is necessary to carefully check labels, expiration dates, and food quality. Absolutely do not buy or use products that show signs of damage, mold, unknown origin, are near expiration, or have expired. If unsafe food is discovered, people should immediately report it to the authorities for timely handling, to avoid affecting public health.

Vo Thi Ngoc Lam, Deputy Director of the Department of Health

The Dong Nai Provincial Department of Health has also issued a communication plan for the Lunar New Year and Spring Festival 2026 with the goal of raising awareness and responsibility among all levels of government, food production and trading establishments, and the public in ensuring food safety, especially when food consumption demand increases. The communication plan focuses on 3 main groups: state management agencies, food production, processing, and business establishments, and consumers.

Meanwhile, regarding the functions and tasks assigned to the police force, Tuong The Manh, Deputy Head of the Economic Police Department (Dong Nai Provincial Public Security), suggested that relevant sectors should work together to update necessary data onto software to facilitate the prevention and combat of food safety violations. For example, if a problem occurs and the police force needs to trace a certain product, they only need to go to the electronic software and type in the product name. The system will provide all information related to the product, standards, regulations, and functional forces will not have to spend a lot of time tracing the origin and finding product information as in the past.

Delivering his directive speech at a recent meeting of the Provincial Inter-sectoral Steering Committee on FS, Comrade Le Truong Son, Member of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, requested departments, sectors, and localities to strengthen management, inspection, and post-inspection of food safety, especially before, during, and after the Lunar New Year (Year of the Horse) 2026, to prevent food poisoning or the influx of counterfeit, fake, and substandard goods into the market.

The Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Le Truong Son assigned the Department of Health to review and propose to the Provincial People's Committee to direct efforts to upgrade the Provincial Testing Center. The Provincial People's Committee will provide maximum support and create all conditions regarding facilities, resources, and even propose personnel to supplement and upgrade the Dong Nai Provincial Testing Center to be equivalent to the center in Ho Chi Minh City, serving the general mission of the entire province, including food testing.

By Hanh Dung – Translated by Mai Nga, Thu Ha