Hanoi (VNA) - More inspections of street-food are neededto control food safety and hygiene and prevent food poisoning.

Quick and affordable street food is often the first choice of studentsand people with low-incomes, however it has been said the food poses risks tohealth.

According to surveys by Hanoi Moi (New Hanoi)newspaper, street food has become more and more popular in Hanoi. Most of theestablishments are near hospitals, schools, markets and factories.

In front of Viet Duc Hospital and the Central Obstetrics Hospitalin Trieu Quoc Dat Street, at lunch time, several mobile street food stallsselling rice and noodles can be seen on the sidewalks.

The vendors use their bare hands to serve food and customers siteating on the dusty sidewalks. And the mobile shops do not have enough water toclean dishes.

Dr Tran Ngoc Tu, head of Hanoi’s Food Safety and HygieneAdministration, told the paper that restaurant owners did not fully comply withfood safety and hygiene laws.

“At present, about 20 percent of food service entities are usingfood with unknown origins,” Tu said.

“Seventeen percent of street food shops were located near pollutedareas and the food was not on shelves at least 60cm above the ground,” he toldthe paper.

Meanwhile, many shops did not comply with regulations to protectfood from dust and insects. Cooks used bared hands to serve food and many shopsdid not use clean water for processing food and washing dishes and cookingutensils, Tu said.

According to the official, most street food stalls are mobile,making it difficult for officials to control food safety and hygiene.

Additionally, local authorities had not tightened inspections offood safety and hygiene or strictly punished violations.

Under current regulations, inspections on restaurants and streetfood stalls are the remit of ward and township authorities. But theseauthorities just warned violators or levied small fines unlikely to preventviolations, said Tu.

Last year, wards and townships in Hanoi inspected more than 17,000restaurants and street food stalls and fined 16 street food vendors a total of 9.3million VND (roughly 400 USD) for food safety violations.

To overcome shortcomings in street food control, recently, deputydirector of Hanoi Healthcare Department, Tran Văn Chung has asked agencies toenhance food safety inspections in the city.

Chung asked local authorities to carry out periodical inspectionson restaurants and street food stalls at least four times a year.

The Hanoi Food Safety and Hygiene Administration should conductunscheduled inspections to restaurants and street food stalls to uncoverviolations. Violations must carry strict sanctions and be made public.

Also, to effectively implement the food safety and hygieneregulations, information dissemination to food sellers and people isimportant.-VNA