VN learns workers also march on their stomachs

Workers select food at the Mong Duong Coal Joint Stock Company's canteen in Quang Ninh Province.The company provides nutritious meals, but millions of other factory workers often eat unhygienic and poorly prepared food. — VNA/VNS Photo Ngoc Ha

BINH DUONG — Health authorities and nutrition experts are calling for factories in industrial zones and export processing zones to improve the quality of workers' meals as the number of collective food poisoning cases continues to rise.

Participants at the conference, organised yesterday by the Health Ministry's Viet Nam Food Administration, agreed that millions of workers across the country had been suffering from unhygienic meals, which did not provide them with enough nutrition to handle long working hours and affected the general quality of the labour force.

According to Tran Quang Trung, head of the National Food Administration, there were 927 food poisoning cases between 2007-11 nationwide, affecting roughly 30,700 people, including 229 deaths.

Between 2007-11, 72 collective food poisoning cases at public canteens in industrial and processing zones were reported nationwide, affecting 7,000 workers and hospitalising about 6,600.

Most of the cases at factories resulted from low quality ingredients and unhygienic processing and storage procedures that did not meet safety standards.