Situation of knowledge, practice on the inspection among civil servants carry out the food safety inspection in 30 provinces/cities

Journal of military pharmaco-medicine no6-2019

SITUATION OF KNOWLEDGE, PRACTICE ON THE INSPECTION
AMONG CIVIL SERVANTS CARRY OUT THE FOOD SAFETY
INSPECTION IN 30 PROVINCES/CITIES
Tong Tran Ha1; Nguyen Thanh Long2; Le Van Bao3
SUMMARY
Objectives: To describe the general knowledge and practice about the inspection profession
of officer in food safety inspection in 30 provinces/cities. Subjects and method: Using the crosssectional descriptive method. Direct interview of research subjects with pre-designed
questionnaires. A total of 338 subjects participated in this study. Results: Regarding knowledge
related to "The content of specialized inspection of food hygiene and safety": most of subjects'
knowledge about the contents in this section was quite low, all of them were below 50%. Less
than one-third of subjects (32.54%) correctly answered ≥ 50% of questionaires about general
knowledge (32.54%). In practice field: 3.55% of subjects had not been involved in inspection.
6.75% of them could not get the main sample due to "Restrictions of equipment and essential
tools for sampling and preservation" (77.27%), "No sampling certificate" (55.55%) and "Due to
limited capacity, understanding of food sampling and preservation" (36.36%). Only about
47.04% of subjects correctly answered ≥ 50 or more practical questionnaires. Conclusion:
Knowledge and practice of food safety inspection officers of 30 provinces/cities is still relatively
limited. Therefore, it is necessary to take some solutions such as training on specialized and
regular specialized inspection.
* Keywords: Food inspection and safety operations; Knowledge; Practice; Food safety.

INTRODUCTION
Food safety has a direct and regular
impact on health, even the lives of users,
in the long term also affects the ethnic race.
In term of a socio-economic perspective,
food safety has a great influence on
economic development, trade, tourism and
social security.

According to a report by the Vietnam
Food Administration and some studies,
the number of cases, food poisoning

cases and deaths were still high (from
2000 to 2010, there were 2,147 cases
of food poisoning) with 60,602 cases
and 583 deaths [1]. In fact, the number
of cases of food poisoning were many
times higher than the number of cases
was detected and recorded [2, 3]. The
results of inspections in 10 years (2001 2010) showed that the violation rate of
food hygiene and safety at inspected
establishments was about 20 - 30%.

1. Ministry of Health
1. Central Propaganda and Training Commission
3. Vietnam Military Medical University
Correspoding author: Tong Tran Ha ()
Date received: 19/06/2019
Date accepted: 06/08/2019

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Journal of military pharmaco-medicine no6-2019
The contents of violations were mainly
detected during the process of major
inspection and examination of violations
of basic sanitation conditions, violations of

equipment, tools and violations of people,
violations of labeling, advertising food,
non-quality food, unknown origin, origin.
The above situation showed that the
quality management of food hygiene and
safety still has many shortcomings, including
causes related to capacity (knowledge
and practice) of civil servants performing
inspection work. Therefore, in order to
assess the overall and objectively the
capacity of civil servants who performed
the specialized inspection of food safety,
thereby serving as a basis to come up
with appropriate and effective interventions,
this study was carried out with the goal:
To discribe the situation of knowledge,
practice on the inspection among civil
servants who carried out the food safety
inspection in 30 provinces/cities in 2012.
SUBJECTS AND METHOD
1. Subjects, location and time of
study.
- Subjects: Civil servants specialized in
food safety inspection at the provincial/city
level, including the Department of Health
Inspectorate and Sub-Department of Food
Hygiene and Safety of the selected
provinces.
- Location: The study was conducted in
30/63 provinces/cities, divided into three

regions (North, Central and South),
including: Northern (12/25 provinces/cities):
Hanoi, Hanam, Namdinh, Vinhphuc, Phutho,
112

Tuyenquang, Hoabinh, Sonla, Dienbien,
Haiduong, Haiphong, Quangninh; Central
region (10/19 provinces/cities): Quangbinh,
Quangtri, Thuathienhue, Binhdinh, Phuyen,
Khanhoa, Binhthuan, Daklak, Daknong
and Lamdong; Southern (8/19 provinces/
cities): Hochiminh City, Dongnai, Binhduong,
Tiengiang, Bentre, Cantho, Vinhlong,
Dongthap.
- Research period: From November to
December 2012.
2. Method.
- Study design: The cross-sectional
descriptive method.
- Sample size and sample selection:
Assigning 30 provinces/cities based on
the request of the Vietnam Food
Administration, Ministry of Health.
Choosing 30 provinces/cities by single
random method.

n=

Z2(1-α/2)

p (1 − p )
d2

Inside:
+ n: Minimum sample size.
+ α: Significance levels (α = 0.05).
+ z: Reliability taken at the probability
threshold, α = 0.05, Z(1-α / 2) = 1.96.
+ p: The rate of estimating civil servants
correctly answered ≥ 50% of knowledge
questions. Since there was no similar study,
p = 50% should be taken (p = 0.50).
+ d: Relative error, expected d = 5%
(d = 0.05).
Replacing the values in the formula to
calculate n = 384. In fact, at the time of
investigation, the number of civil servants


Journal of military pharmaco-medicine no6-2019
was present in 30 selected provinces/
cities of 457 people, including 119 civil
servants being leading officials and 338
civil servants accounting for over 95%
of civil servants were employees of

Inspectorate of Department of Health and
Sub-department of Hygiene and Food
Safety. In this study, we only analyzed the
knowledge and practice of the inspection

profession of civil servants.

Table 1: Number of civil servants in 30 provinces/cities (n = 338).
Number

Provinces/
cities

Quantity

Number

Province/
cities

Quantity

1

Hanoi

21

11

Haiphong

12

21

Dak Nong

6

2

Hanam

10

12

Quangninh

13

22

Lamdong

12

3

Namdinh

13

13

Quangbinh

12

23

Hochiminh City

17

4

Vinhphuc

9

14

Quangtri

18

24

Dongnai

17

5

Phutho

6

15

Thua
Thienhue

10

25

Binhduong

9

6

Tuyenquang

11

16

Binhdinh

13

26

Tien Giang

12

7

Hoabinh

12

17

Phuyen

7

27

Bentre

12

8

Sonla

6

18

Khanhhoa

9

28

Cantho

10

9

Dienbien

9

19

Binhthuan

6

29

Vinhlong

11

10

Haiduong

15

20

Daklak

11

30

Dongthap

9

- Variables and indicators: Knowledge
about inspection: responsibilities of inspected
units; contents need specialized inspection
of food safety; people had the right to
sanction administrative violations of food
safety violations; general assessment
of inspection professional knowledge.
Practice on inspection profession: Type of
establishment that has ever participated
in inspection; ability to perform test
samples; work/content prepared; what
has actually been done in conducting

an inspection; general assessment of
inspection operation practice.
- Methods and techniques for data
collection: Direct interviewed with civil

Number Povinces/ cities Quantity

servants working on food safety inspection
with pre-designed tools. When asking, did
not read the answer, but just read the
question and let subjects thinking by
themselves and gave the answer.
- Data processing methods:
+ Data were entered with Epidata 3.1
software and were analyzed with Stata
software 14.0. Using descriptive statistical
tests to analyze results. Using frequency
tables, charts to describe frequencies and
rates according to research variables.
+ To calculate the rate of achieving
knowledge and practice in two levels: the
group reached ≥ 50% of the correct
answers and the group reached < 50% of
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Journal of military pharmaco-medicine no6-2019
the correct answers. The questions asked
about making consciousness and practice
were equally important.

- Research ethics: The subject were
fully explained about the content and

purpose of the study. All study subjects
confirmed voluntary participation. All
information of the subject was kept
confidential and only for scientific
research purposes.

RESULTS
1. Knowledge about inspection profession of civil servants who carried out
the food safety inspection.
Table 2: Knowledge about the responsibility of the food safety inspection unit (n = 338).
Number

Contents

Quantity

%

1

Appointing authorized person to work with inspection/inspection team

188

55.62

2

Providing full information, documents and timely reports at the
request of the inspection team/inspectors

163

48.22

3

Be responsible before the law for the information, documents and
reports provided

167

49.41

4

Strictly abiding by requests, proposals, decisions and conclusions
about inspection and inspection

139

41.12

Knowledge of civil servants about the responsibility of the inspected unit: knowledge
about the sub-item "The dispatch of a person with authority to work with an
inspection/inspection team" was the highest (55.62%), the lowest was sub-items of
units to be examined need: "Strictly comply with requirements, recommendations,

decisions, conclusions about inspection and inspection (41.12%).
Table 3: Knowledge about content of food safety inspection (n = 338).
Number

Contents

Quantity

%

1

The implementation of standards, technical regulations and
regulations on food safety

124

36.69

2

Product labeling

150

44.38

3

Compliance with regulations on food advertising

156

46.15

4

Food safety testing activities

127

37.57

5

Compliance with food safety conditions

126

37.28

6

Activities of standard and conformity certification

146

43.20

7

Compliance with regulations on food imports

158

46.75

Knowledge of civil servants about "The content needs specialized inspection of food
hygiene and safety: Most of the knowledge of civil servants about the contents in this
section was quite low, only reaching less than 50%, of which the lowest was about the
subsection: "Jobs implementing standards, technical regulations and food safety
regulations” (36.69%).
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Journal of military pharmaco-medicine no6-2019

Chart 1: Knowledge about people has the right to sanction administrative violations of
food safety violations (n = 338).
About civil servants' knowledge about people who had the right to sanction
administrative violations: only less than 40% of public employees knew: civil servants
assigned to implement inspection (34.62%), market management (39.94%), inspection
collaborators (39.94%). The most knowledgeable public servants were: chief
inspectors, judge of health and public security (both reached 45.27%).

Chart 2: Assessing the status of general knowledge about food safety inspection
profession of civil servants (n = 338).
Chart 2 showed that only less than one-third of civil servants (32.54%) correctly
answered over 50% of the general knowledge.
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Journal of military pharmaco-medicine no6-2019
2. Practice on the inspection profession of civil servants working in food
safety inspection.
Table 4: The type of establishment that has participated in the inspection and the
ability to perform testing samples (n = 338).
Number

Contents

Quantity

%

I

Type of establishment that has ever participated in inspection

1

Not joined yet

12

3.55

2

Having participated, in which

326

96.45

Inspecting food production facility

175

53.68

Inspecting of food business establishments

150

46.01

Inspecting the food importer

122

37.42

Inspecting the street food facility

161

49.39

Inspecting restaurants, hotels, collective kitchens

166

50.92

Inspecting the bottled water facility

236

72.39

II

Ability to perform test sampling

1

Yes

316

93.49

2

No

22

6.51

Due to limited capacity, understanding of food sampling and
preservation of samples

8

36.36

Limitations of equipment and essential tools using for sample
collection and preservation

17

77.27

12

55.55

Reasons for not being able to perform sampling (n = 22)
2.1
2.2
2.3

Have no sampling certificate

- About the practice of inspection: only 3.55% of civil servants had not been involved
in inspection. Among the civil servants who had been involved in inspection, the
inspection in food production establishments was the most, inspectors at least with
food importers (37.42%).

- About the ability to perform testing samples: Among civil servants who had
participated in the inspection, the majority of civil servants knew how to perform testing
samples (93.49%). However, still 6.51% of civil servants could not get the sample due
to some reasons: the highest belongs to "Restriction of equipment and essential tools
used for taking and preserving samples" (77.27%), followed by “No sampling
certificate" (55.55%) and "Limited capacity, understanding of food sampling and
preservation of samples" (36.36%).
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Journal of military pharmaco-medicine no6-2019
Table 5: The work/content prepared and the actual implementation in conducting an
inspection (n = 338).
Number
I

Contents

Quantity

%

The work/content prepared to conduct the inspection

1

Receiving information

171

47.55

2

Information processing

139

42.64

3

Preparing legal basis (decision on inspection, prepare legal bases to use)

151

46.32

4

Developing plans and inspection outline

158

48.47

5

Popularizing inspection plan

143

43.87

6

Notifying the subject to be inspected before coming to the inspection

124

38.04

7

Meeting with the subject of inspection before going to the inspection

156

47.85

II

Things done when conducting inspections at the facility

1

Announcing the inspection legal basis (inspection decision or
inspector card)

134

41.10

2

Request or outline the facility to report

189

57.98

3

Checking the legal basis

286

87.73

4

Listening to the subject of the inspection report

285

87.42

5

Collecting, checking, verifing information and documents

147

45.09

6

Collecting exhibits, take samples, implementing urgent solutions

124

38.04

7

Reporting the inspection progress with the decision maker

142

43.56

8

Recording inspection delegation

144

44.17

9

Amending and supplementing the plan for conducting inspection

153

46.93

10

Suspension of on-site inspections to perform other work. After a
period of further inspection

153

46.93

- On the preparation of inspection: with all contents prepared for the inspection,
public servants only knew less than 50%. In particular, the lowest was: "Notifying the
subject to be inspected before coming” (38.04%).
- In particular, what was done when conducting the inspection: 87.73% and 87.42%
of the civil servants answered the following contents: "Legal basis check"
and "Listening to the inspected subject presented report". However, the content
of "Collecting exhibits, taking samples, implementing solutions" had the lowest
rate (38.04%).
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Journal of military pharmaco-medicine no6-2019

Chart 3: Assessing the status of general practice on food safety

inspection profession of civil servants.
The results of chart 3 showed that 47.04% of the public servants correctly answered
≥ 50% of the questions about general practice.
DISCUSSION
In order to ensure food safety for users,
in addition to issuing legal documents,
technical regulations; improving the capacity
of the state management system on food
safety; strengthening communication and
education for food managers, producers,
processors, suppliers, and food users, and
inspections play an extremely important
role.
Since early 2009, after the Decree
79/2008/ND-CP of Government [4], a
specialized inspection system for food
safety in the health sector was established
at two levels. The specialized inspection
system for food safety in the health sector
has only been established since early
2009, with forces still had not enough
and only formed at the central and
provincial/city levels. In 2012, the
Government
issued
Decree
No.
07/2012/ND-CP regulating on agencies
118

assigned to perform specialized inspection
and inspection activities, in which the
Vietnam Food Administration and Branches
Department of Food Hygiene and Safety
implemented inspection function on food
safety [5]. In the context of the newly
established Sub-Department of Food
Hygiene and Safety, in addition to caring
about the number of civil servants, the
quality related to implementation capacity
(knowledge, practice) of food safety
inspection is also a problem that needs to
be adequately addressed.
1. Knowledge about inspection
profession of civil servants who
carried out the food safety inspection.
The first basic task of a public inspection
officer was to know what the responsibility
of the inspected unit will need to do. The
results showed that the highest level of
knowledge about the sub-category "The
person with authority to work with the


Journal of military pharmaco-medicine no6-2019
inspection/inspection team" was only
55.62%, the lowest percentage was the
sub-unit under test that needs: "Strictly
abiding by the requirements, petitions,
decisions and conclusions on inspection

and inspection (only reaching 41.12%).
About the content of specialized inspection
of food hygiene and safety, most of the
civil servants' knowledge about the contents
in this section was quite low, all of them
were below 50%, of which the lowest
was the sub-section: standards, technical
regulations and food safety regulations”
(with only 36.69%).
About those who had the right to
sanction administrative violations, only
less than 40% of public employees knew
about public servants assigned to implement
inspection (34.62%), market management
(39.94%), inspection collaborators (39.94%).
The most knowledgeable public servants
were: chief inspectors, judge of health and
public security (both reached 45.27%).
In summary, only less than one-third of
civil servants (32.64%) correctly answered
≥ 50% of general knowledge questions.
This was a very important result because
if the knowledge of the inspector did not
guarantee, it could lead to the inspection,
the inspection was incorrect, insufficient
and not deep, this might create gaps,
affecting the calculation legal of food
safety inspection.
2. Practice on the inspection
profession of civil servants working in

food safety inspection.
As the knowledge section, there were
many contents in the practice section that
must be firmly grasped by inspection
officials. The results in table 3 showed

that only 3.55% of civil servants had not
been involved in inspection. Among those
who had been involved in the inspection,
the establishment was inspected at least
with the food importer (only 37.42%).
One of the important tasks and skills of
civil servants doing food safety inspection
was to take samples for testing. The results
of table 3 showed that almost all civil
servants knew how to perform testing
samples (93.49%). However, 6.51% of
them still cannot got the sample due to
some reasons: the highest percentage
belongs to "Restrictions of equipments
and essential tools for taking and
preserving samples" (77.27%), followed
by "No sampling certificate" (55.55%) and
"Limited capacity, understanding of food
sampling and preservation" (36.36%).
This was similar to the statement in the
report on the quality of food hygiene and
safety in 2009 of the Vietnam Food
Administration [6]. Through this, it could
be seen that there are still certain

limitations related to equipments and
basic tools for sampling (missing or not
ensuring quality). In addition to this reason,
civil servants themselves had recognized
that they needed to have a certificate
of parallel sampling to improve their
qualifications and sampling capacity to
meet the job.
Practical preparation and practical
implementation of a food inspection was
something that an inspector needs to
know. However, the results of table 4
showed that all contents were prepared
for the inspection, the percentage of civil
servants only knew less than 50%. In
general, only 47.04% of civil servants
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Journal of military pharmaco-medicine no6-2019
correctly answered ≥ 50 or more practical
questions. This was a very low rate or in
other words, the capacity of inspection
profession was still limited. This was
similar to the statement in the report of
the Vietnam Food Administration in 2010,
this inspection had many limitations
because the compliance with the
provisions of the law on inspection was
not as good as when the union refer to

the facility for food hygiene and safety
inspection but did not announce the
decision to inspect, or took food samples
but did not fully record in the inspection
minutes, sampling records [7, 8, 9].
From all above results, it was necessary
to implement measures such as regular
training to improve the knowledge and
practice on food safety inspection activities
for civil servants assigned to this task.
CONCLUSION
The knowledge and practice of food
safety inspection of 30 provinces/cities
was still limited. About knowledge, related
to "The content of specialized inspection
of food hygiene and safety": Most of the
civil servants' knowledge about the contents
in this section was quite low, all of them
were below 50%. In addition, less than
one-third of civil servants (32.54%) correctly
answered ≥ 50% of questions about
general knowledge. About practice: 3.55%
of civil servants had not participated in
inspection yet. 6.51% of civil servants
could not get a sample due to some
reasons: the highest percentage belonged
to "Restrictions of equipments and essential
tools to use for taking and preserving
samples" (77.27%), "No with sampling
120

certificate” (55.55%) and “Limited capacity,
understanding of food sampling and
preservation” (36.36%). Only about
47.04% of civil servants answered correctly
≥ 50% or more practical questions.
REFERENCES
1. Vietnam Food Administration. Report on
food poisoning situation from 2006 to 2010
and priorities in preventing food poisoning in
the coming time. Ministry of Health. 2011.
2. Vietnam Food Administration - Vietnam
Science and Technology Association for Food
th
Safety. Yearbook of the 5 Food Science and
Safety Conference. Hanoi Publisher. 2009,
pp.45-46.
3. Nguyen Cong Khan. Ensuring food safety
and hygiene in Vietnam - Challenges and
th
prospects, Yearbook of the 5 Food Science
and Safety Conference, Hanoi Publisher. 2009,
pp.11-22.
4. Vietnam Government. Decree No.
79/2008/ND-CP dated July 18, 2008 on the
system of management, inspection and testing
of food hygiene and safety. 2008.
5. Vietnam Government. Decree No.
07/2012/ND-CP dated February 9, 2012,
Regulation on assigned agencies implementing

specialized inspection functions and specialized
inspection activities. 2012.
6. Vietnam Food Administration. Report on
the work of ensuring food hygiene and safety
in 2009.
7. Vietnam Food Administration. Report on
the work of ensuring food hygiene and safety
in 2006.
8. Vietnam Food Administration. Report on
the work of ensuring food hygiene and safety
in 2007.
9. Vietnam Food Administration. Report on
the work of ensuring food hygiene and safety
in 2008.