U.S. to re-evaluate food safety for Vietnamese tra fish next month

CAN THO - The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) under the U.S. Department of Agriculture is expected to send a working team to Vietnam to evaluate the country's food safety control system for tra fish for the second time, from March 2 to 13.

Workers process tra fish for export at a processing facility in Vietnam. The Food Safety and Inspection Service under the U.S. Department of Agriculture will send a working team to Vietnam to evaluate Vietnam’s food safety control system for tra fish for the second time next month - PHOTO: TRUNG CHANH

Ngo Hong Phong, deputy head of the National Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Assurance Department (Nafiqad), told a meeting held in Can Tho City on February 7 that Nafiqad had received a letter from FSIS on January 20 announcing that its working team will visit Vietnam for the re-evaluation.

The first evaluation on the country’s food safety control system for Siluriformes fish, mainly tra fish, was conducted in May 2018. Accordingly, the inspection team launched an on-site inspection of the food safety control systems of two central surveillance agencies, a testing room run by Nafiqad, eight tra fish processing factories and two tra fish farming facilities.

Phong noted that in November last year, after the evaluation, FSIS recognized the compatibility of Vietnamese tra fish’s quality standards with its own standards.

The U.S. team’s re-evaluation is aimed at maintaining Vietnam’s food safety control system for tra fish being exported to the United States.

To prepare for the U.S. inspection team’s visit, Phong told firms to review and improve tra fish production and processing conditions to ensure food safety. In addition, all activities from breeding, farming and transportation to processing and export should be well documented.

The U.S. team’s evaluation of Vietnam’s food safety control system is part of its catfish inspection campaign in various countries, including Vietnam.