Food poisoning drill during food safety month: Don't let dirty food get into your meals

The drill aims to proactively respond to food safety incidents.

Looking from a hypothetical situation

On the morning of April 15, at Hai My Company Limited - Saigon Factory (Binh Chuan production area, Binh Chuan ward, Thuan An city), the Department of Health coordinated with the People's Committee of Thuan An city to organize a drill to respond to and handle food poisoning at a collective kitchen in a provincial-level industrial park.

The hypothetical situation was set up at 7:00 a.m. on April 15, at Hai My Company Limited - Saigon Factory, where breakfast was organized for about 200 employees and workers of the company. After breakfast, at 8:30 a.m., 2 workers in the production department had stomachaches, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. About 15 minutes later, 8 employees in the production workshop 1 and over 10 employees in the production workshop 2 had similar symptoms. These employees and workers were quickly transferred to the company's medical room for first aid and treatment.

Faced with the complicated developments, the heads of departments stepped in to stabilize the situation and avoid panic; at the same time, they asked the workers to stay put, and doctors would come to examine them. Workers who showed no symptoms stayed put and continued production.

Food poisoning response and handling drills at the collective kitchen at Hai My Company Limited - Saigon Factory

The department head and the union group of the telephone company informed the company leaders about the situation and discussed the scale and extent of the incident. The company leaders determined that this was a food poisoning incident with many people infected, so they immediately summoned the three heads of the company's poisoning response team, requested the immediate deployment of a field clinic, and activated the food poisoning response plan at the company. The telephone company leaders informed the medical station about the suspected food poisoning incident and requested the medical station to send forces to support. The medical station received the information and called to notify the Thuan An Medical Center and the People's Committee of Binh Chuan Ward about the situation of the incident and requested support forces.

After receiving the information, the City Medical Center promptly provided emergency support, examined, classified and treated patients, transferred seriously ill patients to other treatment facilities; reported to the Provincial Food Safety and Hygiene Department and the City People's Committee to mobilize forces and vehicles to the scene to treat and provide emergency care to patients, investigate, verify, collect samples of specimens and food samples for testing, determine the cause of poisoning and trace the origin of food, and handle environmental sanitation.

Focus on food safety in communal kitchens

Along with the drill on responding to and handling food poisoning in collective kitchens in industrial parks, the Provincial Food Safety Steering Committee also held a launching ceremony for the "Month of Action for Food Safety" in 2025.

Flower car launched to promote the peak of the Month of Action for Food Safety

Speaking at the ceremony, Dr. Nguyen Hong Chuong, Director of the Department of Health, emphasized that in recent times, the work of ensuring food safety in the province has revealed many shortcomings and limitations. The situation of food poisoning is becoming more and more complicated, especially food poisoning in collective kitchens of companies, businesses, schools and food poisoning due to street food. At the same time, forms of advertising on e-commerce platforms are increasingly popular and difficult to manage, leading to many potential risks and challenges.

In order for the 2025 Food Safety Action Month to be effectively implemented, Dr. Nguyen Hong Chuong requested departments, branches and localities to resolutely implement the Central and provincial directives on food safety. Strengthen inspection, supervision and strictly handle violations. Promote community propaganda, change behavior, choose and use safe food. Companies and businesses with collective kitchens, ready-to-eat food processing facilities, restaurants, street food businesses need to raise their sense of responsibility, strictly comply with the provisions of the law on food safety; control quality, ensure the origin of raw materials, hygiene of facilities, equipment and knowledge and practices of managers and people directly processing food.

After the launching ceremony, the float paraded on the streets of Thuan An City to raise people's awareness of health protection, choose to use food with clear origin and actively report food safety violations to the authorities.

“The drill aims to raise awareness of responsibility, strictly comply with legal regulations on food safety, quality control, ensuring the origin of raw materials, facility hygiene, and equipping managers and those directly processing food with knowledge and practice. The drill also improves practical skills in investigating and handling food poisoning incidents in collective kitchens; and enhances the responsibility and skills of medical units in handling and overcoming the consequences of food poisoning incidents in the area.”

(Doctor Huynh Minh Chin, Deputy Director of the Provincial Department of Health)

KIM HA

Source: https://baobinhduong.vn/dien-tap-xu-ly-ngo-doc-thuc-pham-trong-thang-an-toan-thuc-pham-khong-de-thuc-pham-ban-lot-vao-bua-a-a345368.html