Hanoi steps up food safety inspections for Tet 2026
To better protect consumers’ health, Hanoi authorities have taken measures to tighten control over food safety and hygiene to prevent food poisoning before, during and after Tet holiday 2026.
THE HANOI TIMES — The Hanoi Market Surveillance Department has formed multiple inspection teams to check food safety and hygiene conditions as well as product prices ahead of Tet (the Lunar New Year) to protect consumers’ health during the holiday and associated festivals.
The inspections are focusing on facilities involved in the production, processing and trading of goods in high demand during Tet, including meat and meat products, beverages, alcoholic drinks and confectionery.
The Hanoi Market Surveillance Department, in coordination with police force of Soc Son Commune, discover a vehicle transporting smuggled chicken feet that do not meet food safety and hygiene standards. Photo: Hoai Nam/The Hanoi Times
Inspections will target large food processing plants, wholesale markets, supermarkets, shopping malls and street vendors to prevent food poisoning.
Meanwhile, market management boards are required to carry out regular checks, remind businesses to comply with food safety and environmental regulations and strictly penalize violations.
The municipal Department of Health has also deployed four mobile teams for food poisoning prevention and response, strengthening on-site supervision.
The inspections aim to promptly detect and handle violations related to prohibited, smuggled and counterfeit goods, unsafe food storage and transport, substandard food quality and other forms of commercial fraud.
In the first half of January, authorities uncovered multiple cases involving the trading and transport of large quantities of unsafe food.
One case involved Team No. 2 of the Hanoi Market Surveillance Department, which coordinated with Hong Ha Ward Police to inspect a food business in Alley 127 on Phuc Xa Street, where 55 kilograms of pork of unknown origin were seized.
The functional forces in Hanoi inspect the origin of ingredients at Starbucks coffee shop on Duy Tan Street. Photo: Cong Trinh/The Hanoi Times
Another inspection of a fruit business on Tan Ap Street uncovered 178 kg of fresh oranges and a batch of fresh milk that were smuggled goods.
Team No.10 of the Hanoi Market Surveillance Department, in coordination with the Soc Son Commune Police and Traffic Police Team No.15, discovered a vehicle licensed 29D-420.11 with 26 sacks containing a total of 831 kg of frozen chicken feet that were emitting a foul odor, of unknown origin, and without the required invoices or documents.
According to Trinh Quang Duc, Head of the Hanoi Market Surveillance Department, the food market to serve the Tet festival is bustling with various kinds of products to meet increasing public demand but also poses high risks of unsafe food or violations in food safety and hygiene.
“Hanoi has been paying special attention to inspecting, controlling and handling violations related to the trading and transportation of frozen livestock, poultry and products derived from livestock and poultry, while combating prohibited goods such as firecrackers, weapons, explosives and smuggled cigarettes,” said Duc.
The department will maintain peak inspection campaigns before, during and after the Lunar New Year; strengthen supervision of key routes and areas, wholesale markets, commercial centers and warehouses; enhance inter-agency coordination with the police, customs, tax authorities, health agencies and local authorities to promptly detect, prevent and strictly handle acts of trading in smuggled goods, counterfeit goods and unsafe food.
"Special attention will be paid to facilities and businesses producing and trading alcohol products to prevent food poisoning, which has become an urgent problem over Tet in recent years,” the official noted.
