Presented by Fred Unger at the Markets and Agricultures Linkages for Cities in Asia (MALICA) Annual Scientific Meeting 2019, Hanoi, Vietnam, 5 November 2019.

1. Pork safety assessment and first results from pilot
interventions targeting slaughter and retail in
selected provinces in northern Vietnam
Fred Unger
International Livestock Research Institute
Markets and agricultures linkages for cities in Asia (MALICA) Annual Scientific Meeting 2019
5 November 2019, Hanoi, Vietnam

2. Outline
• Introduction
• Material and methods
• Results
• Conclusions

3. Introduction - pork and food safety in Vietnam
Pork is an important component of the Vietnamese diet
• The most widely consumed meat: 29.1Kg/person
• >80% comes from very small or small farms
(proportion reduced due to ASF)
• 76% of pigs are processed in small slaughtering
• Preference for fresh “warm” pork supplied in traditional markets
(>80% of all pork marketed)
Food safety among the most pressing issues for people in Vietnam,
more important than education or health care
Food exports relatively well managed but deficits
in domestic markets

4. PigRISK
Sep
2017
Pig competiveness
2008
-2012
ILRI’s and partners pig value chain work in Vietnam
SAFEPork
Small holder pig sector is
important and competitive
Oct
2017
Policy engaegement
Capacity building and scientific evidence
Mar
2022
Pork safety - Assessment
PPBD **Local pigs
Viet GAHP*survey PFBD** local pigs
AMR
*Viet GAHP (Good Animal Husbandry Practices)
** PFBD (Paraistic Foodborne Diseases)
Pork safety - Interventions
Jul
2012

5. Pork safety assessments and pathways towards safer pork
PigRISK (2012-2017) http://pigrisk.ilriwikis.org SAFE Pork (ongoing)
Research questions
Is pork safe in Vietnam?
Methods:
Value chain assessment, quantitative and qualitative
risk assessment (QMRA)
Cost of food borne diseases (FBD)
Cross-contaminations (household)
• Interdisciplinary team
• Risk based approach
• Farm to fork
• Food safety hazards:
– Biological and chemical
Research questions
What are faesable interventions?
Methods:
Food safety (FS) performance of pork
value chains
FS interventions & risk communication

6. Results from risk assessment under Pig RISK
Microbial Risk assessment:
Salmonella contamination started at farm and increased along the pork chain
(farm – slaughter – market) mainly related to poor hygienic practices
44 to 83% of pork across different retail contaminated with Salmonella
Misperception towards risk – public most concerned on chemical hazards but
major health risk related to microbiological hazards
Risk for pork consumer: 1 – 2 person out of 10 (17%) estimated to suffer
Salmonella caused food borne diseaes annually
Chemical risk assessment: Risk due to chemical hazards is low (heavy metals,
grow promoters and antibiotics)
Hospitalization costs of foodborne diarrhoea per treatment episode: USD 107
Is pork safe? SAFE Pork: Focus on food safety
interventions along pork value chains

7. Investments in FS can save lives and $$$
• 94 million people
• Cases of foodborne diseases (FBD) by
Salmonella in pork at 17%: 16 million
get sick annually
• Proportion of illnesses hospitalized
20%: 3.2 million cases (based on data
from USA and Australia)
• Cost $ 107 to treat a case: $342
million
• Potential intervention to reduce 20%
FBD burden:$ 68 million saved
(this does not include the cost of treating
cases who are not hospitalized)
Potential health impact – FBD Vietnam
Based on PigRISK results

8. SAFE Pork
Food safety performance of key pork supply chains
Method: Standardised food safety performance tool (KAP, trust, hazard sampling)
Focus group discussions (11), key informant interviews (543)
& biological sampling (705)
Traditional/
wet market
(all sites)
Street food, Hanoi Canteens, Hanoi „Boutique“ food
chains, niche but
emerging, Hanoi
Supermarket/
convienient
stores, Hanoi
Native pigs,
niche market,
Hoa Binh, „safe by
nature“, prime price
Selection criteria for value chains: contribution to pork supply, novel approaches,
scalability, local support, complementary to other initiative or joint project sites

9. SAFE Pork
Food safety performance of key pork supply chains - results
Traditional/
wet market (all
sites)
Street food, Hanoi Canteens, Hanoi „Boutique“ food
chains, niche but
emerging, Hanoi
Supermarket/
convienient
stores, Hanoi
Native pigs,
niche market, Hoa
Binh
Results:
- Poor food safety outcomes (Salmonella) and hygienic deficits across all retail types
- Trust in food safety was higher in rural areas and at the producer end than in urban
areas and at the consumer end of the value chain
- Consumers trusted television and local radio more than social media for food safety
information
- VC actors relate “Safe Pork” to not using antibiotics/growth promoters and less to
poor hygiene

10. SAFE Pork – interventions
Challenges for improving food safety including pork
• Various approaches to improving safety had been tried, largely based
on systems used in developed countries e.g.:
– GAHP (Good animal husbandry practices), traceability, certification,
modernising retail etc.)
• However, safe meat production has not yet take a significant share of
pork retail in Vietnam (e.g. VietGAHP < 10%)
• Key constraints to uptake include:
– high cost of adoption, lack of benefits from changing behaviour
• To overcome these constraints our focus will be on:
– gradual improvements to the food system in place, rather than
introduction of a new system
– rather simple interventions
– incentive-based

11. Pilot intervention / behaviour change
The pilot trial also demonstrated that technical
solutions must go along with behaviour
change of butchers.
The improvement in hygiene (using grid versus
floor) was indicated by lower coliform load (p =
0.002) on the carcass surface compared to the
control.
Private sector (canteens) attracted by food
safety practice change

12. 12
FBD- a new priority – most from livestock
Millions DALYs lost per year (global)
Safe PORK
Approach used for interventions
• Selection of suitable value chains and intervention points
– Pig RISK results and food safety performance assessment (Safe PORK)
– Value chain assessment
• Participatory diagnostic
– With local authorties and trageted VC actors using meetings, FGD, Key informant
interviews and system effect modelling (barriers and enablers for interventions)
• Supporting research
– Behaviour nudges, system effect & lab trials
• Intervention trials including assessment

13. Safe PORK – interventions
Slaughter: Reduce contamination of pork
Portable ozone machines to plug into water supply
Status: Installed and currently piloted (Soc Son)
Simple, rapid tests that detect contaminated food
Could be used directly by retailers or consumer
Status: Tested, but not promising
Reduce use of antimicrobial (in collaboration with private sector),
replacement of antimicrobials by pro-biotics
Groups: Control (AM) and treatment (probiotics but w/o AM)
Both business as usual
Indicators: Weight gain and AMR
Status: Dec 19 – April 20 (Vin Phuc)

14. Safe PORK – interventions
Reduce contamination of pork
More hygienic slaughter (Tien Lu)
- Elevated grid
- Change of work flow e.g.
separation of clean and dirty area
Status:
• Intervention discussed and agreed with
slaughterhouse owner
• Grid currently build
• Co-investment

15. Safe PORK – interventions
Retailer package
Where: Hung Yen, Tien Lu, retailers supplied by above slaughterhouse
Intervention: Antimicrobial cutting boards, cotton cloths, frequent W&D and
Training
Design: Step wise involvement of retailers (5/20, 10/10/15,5 & all), base line
Indicators: Coliform load and practice (observational) checklist
Supporting activities:
• Lab trials (done)
Test of antimicrobial efficacy of five type of cutting
2 of 5 boards show promising results
• Assessment of the potential to use nudges
for improved food safety behaviour & practice
(behavioural economist)

16. Safe PORK – interventions
Increasing transparency and traceability in food system
24 hour on farm, slaughter (?), branding and certification,
done with private sector
Consumer:
 Awareness campaigns (All & com experts)
Animal welfare
Low perception of butchers & consumers
Entry point: New law of livestock includes chapter on animal welfare
Some good perception by consumers on producer level
But slaughter remains challenge – link to meat quality
Status: Lit review and 1st observational study (ongoing)

17. Vietnam food safety task force : translational research
Vietnam Food Safety (FS) Task Force
• Led by national FS researchers
• Engagement – Government
e.g. through WB funded FS assessment
• New WB Food Safety Initative focus on
4 urban centers (2021 onwards)
Meeting with DPM Vietnam, 2 Dec 2016 (Photo:
Tuyet Hanh) Launch of report with DPM Vietnam, 2018

18. 18
FBD- a new priority – most from livestock
Millions DALYs lost per year (global)
Safe PORK
Conclusions
From assessments:
• Pork is not safe – PH risk is considerable
• Modern retail not safer than traditional retail
• Microbiological hazards are most important
Pathways towards safer pork:
• Government efforts to improve food safety need to include all retail types - the
informal sector has been relatively ignored.
• Techincal innovations require also practice change and incentives
• Risk communication messages must be tailored to the audience and use most
trusted channels

19. Safer pork can be achieved but technical solutions
need to be:
• Evidence based
• Identified and implemented in a strong participatory process
• Incentivized
• Rather simple & cost - effective
• Innovative
• Scalable

20. Acknowledgements: Pig RISK & SAFE Pork teams, VNUA, HUPH, NIAS, NIVR, local
authorities, value chain actors & BacTom, Aqua 21 (UK)
Donors: ACIAR and A4NH
Further readings: http://pigrisk.ilriwikis.org
16 peer reviewed international publication
Acknowledgements

21. This presentation is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.
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ILRI thanks all donors and organizations who globally supported its work through their contributions
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