Vietnam

In implementing the order of the Government of the Russian Federation dated 19.08. 2917 No. 1789-r on the provision of scientific, methodological and material and technical support to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to counter the threats of infectious diseases and risks associated with hazardous chemicals in 2018, with the help of the Vietnam-Russia Tropical Centre, the contact was established with the National Institute for Food Control, Hanoi (National Institute for Food Control (NIFC).

As a result of two meetings held between the representatives of the FBSI "Federal Scientific Center for Medical and Preventive Health Risk Management Technologies" of Rospotrebnadzor, Perm, the National Institute for Food Control, Hanoi and the Vietnam-Russia Tropical Centre, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), containing a plan (roadmap) of joint work for 2018-2019, was signed.

In 2018, in accordance with this plan, the following activities were completed:

1. Training seminar on the topic "Food samples preparing method prior the chemical analysis using the Sepaths automatic solid-phase extraction system followed by chromatography-mass spectrometric analysis" Hanoi, SRV 14 specialists from the National Institute for Food Control, 1 specialist from the Vietnam-Russia Tropical Centre.
2. On-the-job training of 2 Vietnamese specialists on: "Food samples preparing method prior the chemical analysis using the Sepaths automatic solid-phase extraction system followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometric analysis" (scheduled for December 17-21, 2018).

Within the joint Research & Development (R&D) project “Improving food safety. Assessment of the risk to public health due to the content of harmful substances in food products" the following activities have been carried out:

• a workshop on R&D plan fulfilment "Assessment of the risk to public health caused by the content of harmful substances in food" and the preparation of MOU;
• a workshop on R&D implementation "Assessment of the risk to public health due to the content of harmful substances in food products" was held as well as the MOU signing and the further plan for the implementation of the research work ("Roadmap") was developed;
• sampling of food products for research at the Federal Scientific Center for Medical and Preventive Health Risk Management Technologies, Rospotrebnadzor (13 samples of children's cereals and canned meat and vegetables for children, produced by SRV and 7 samples of meat and meat and vegetables products for children, produced in the Russian Federation);
• conducting of the joint researches on the quantitative determination of the content of chemicals in selected samples of baby food products using mass spectrometry at the Federal Scientific Center for Medical and Preventive Health Risk Management Technologies of Rospotrebnadzor and at the National Institute for Food Control;
• speech at the international conference in Hanoi, SRV "Food control conference 2018", 4-5 October 2018, with the report "The experience of the Russian Federation in the development of methods for the determination of N-nitrosamines in food (on the example of canned meat for children)"
• a workshop on planning work on assessing the actual consumption of food products for children in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam within the framework of R&D “Assessment of the risk to public health caused by the content of harmful substances in food products”;
• implementation of the first stages of work on assessing the actual consumption of food products for children in Russia in the framework of R&D "Assessment of the risk to public health caused by the content of harmful substances in food products."

The workshop on R&D implementation "Assessment of the risk to public health due to the content of harmful substances in food products" and the seminar "Assessment of the risk of chemical contamination of food products according to the methods of the Codex Alimentarius Commission and the EEC" in accordance with the joint work plan ("Roadmap") was postponed for 2019.

The main scientific results obtained during the period of the program implementation in 2018:

• advanced training of 14 specialists of the National Institute for Food Control, Hanoi on the topic "Food samples preparing method prior the chemical analysis using the Sepaths automatic solid-phase extraction system followed by chromatography-mass spectrometric analysis."
• in the process of joint researches of the children's meat and vegetable canned food samples, a comparative assessment of the methods of sample preparation for the chemical analysis of N-nitrosoamines, used in the laboratory of the Institute for Food Control Vietnam (NIFC) and in the laboratory of gas chromatography methods of the “FSC for Medical and Preventive Health Risk Management Technologies" was executed. The Vietnam Food Control Institute (NIFC) laboratory uses organic solvent extraction (hexane) to determine N-nitrosamines in canned meat samples for children, followed by evaporation of the extract.
• a technology for assessing the actual consumption of food products for children has been developed and approved, a harmonized questionnaire has been created for the tasks of assessing the actual consumption of food products for children in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and Russia.

In 2019 there were carried out:

• advanced training of researchers of the National Institute of Food Control in the form of training seminars on the topics: "Assessment of chemical contamination of food products in accordance with the methods developed by the Codex Alimentarius Commission and the EAEU." The seminar was attended by 19 people and "Mathematical modeling in assessing the health risk caused by the content of harmful substances in food" (July 2019, Hanoi), "Methods for controlling food consumption in the Russian Federation and Vietnam" 19 people took part in the seminar.
  On-the-job training on these topics was completed by 2 people at the FSC for Medical and Preventive Health Risk Management Technologies.
  Scientists from the National Institute for Food Control took part in the conference "Topical Issues of Risk Analysis in Ensuring the Sanitary and Epidemiological Well-Being of the Population and Protection of Consumer Rights".
• Completion of research work on the topics “Research of the volume of food products consumption in the RF and Vietnam”, “Assessment of health risks (by the example of the content of nitrosamines in baby food)”. The results of three consistently implemented research projects in 2018-2019 showed the presence of nitrosamines content in products for baby food (canned meat, cereals for instant cooking), the volume of consumption of these products and the levels of health risk associated with them.
  The health risk of the population of SRV associated with the content of nitrosamines in canned meat is preliminarily characterized as negligible, the risk associated with the content of nitrosamines in cereals - as high.

In 2020 the R&D “Revealing and identification of the hazard of undeclared and unintentionally present chemicals in food products” was carried out. Due to the epidemic situation in the world, face-to-face training events (seminars, on-the-job training) with the National Institute for Food Control (NIFC), Hanoi, Socialist Republic of Vietnam, failed. At the same time, the material, technical and information base of the Federal Scientific Center was further replenished for conducting training events. As part of the training in 2020, 7 online consultations were held on methodological approaches to the selection of food products for undeclared and unintentionally present chemicals, and fundamental methodological approaches to the selection of food products were proposed and agreed with the National Institute of Food Control.

The proposed methodological approaches include the following stages:

• Substantiation of ways to identify, assess the hazard and control the content of undeclared and unintentionally present chemicals in food products;
• Selection of food products for further hazard assessment and control of the content of chemicals inadvertently present in food products according to selection criteria;
• Identification of undeclared and potentially dangerous inadvertently present chemical contaminants in food products, taking into account the food selection methodology for further hazard assessment and control of the content of chemicals inadvertently present in food products according to selection criteria;
• Assessment of the potential hazard of identified inadvertently present chemicals in food products and food raw materials;
• Hazard identification of unintentionally present chemical contaminants in food products;
• Control of undeclared and hazardous chemical contaminants inadvertently present in food.

The first stage of R&D was devoted to the identification and identification of the hazard of undeclared and unintentionally present chemicals in food products. As a result, a methodology for the selection of food products for undeclared and unintentionally present chemicals was formed and agreed with the National Institute of Food Control, which involved the choice of a priority group of main types of food products in the Russian Federation and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, as well as the choice of a type of food product of a priority food group products and structure in the Russian Federation and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

During the approbation of the methodological approaches as a priority food product in the Russian Federation among all main food groups (milk and dairy products in terms of milk, bread products (bread and pasta in terms of flour, flour, cereals and legumes), vegetables and food and gourds, potatoes, meat and meat products in terms of meat, fruits and berries, sugar, fish and fish products in live weight (raw weight), eggs and egg products, fat-and-fat products), whole drinking milk has been established. Application of the proposed methodological approaches to the choice of food products in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam showed that of all the main food groups (rice and rice products, vegetables, cereals and cereals, fruits, fish and fish products, meat and meat products, milk and dairy products , spices and sauces, oil and fat, sugar and molasses, eggs) for further identification and analysis of unintentionally present chemicals in them, the priority food product in order to assess the potential health hazard was rice.

Fundamental methodological approaches to the identification of the hazard of undeclared and unintentionally present chemicals in food products have been developed and agreed, which have been tested on the example of priority types of food products. Previously, as a result of the identification of undeclared and unintentionally present chemical contaminants in the Russian Federation, more than 40 undeclared and unintentionally present chemical contaminants were identified in milk; in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the identification of undeclared and unintentionally present chemical contaminants in rice is currently being carried out. This will allow at the next stage to further implement the methodological approaches to the identification of the hazard of identified substances.

In accordance with the Plan, within the framework of the X All-Russian Scientific and Practical Internet Conference with International Participation "Health Risk Analysis - 2020 in conjunction with the International Meeting on Environment and Health" RISE-2020 "and the Round Table on Food Safety, held on May 13-20, 2020 using the site https://fcrisk.ru/, a round table "Ensuring food safety in the CIS countries and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam" was convened.

Within the framework of the round table, reports and discussion of studies devoted to topical problems of chemical and biological safety, including the substantiation of hygienic standards for the content of chemical impurities, biological agents in food products according to the criteria of human health risk, the use of a dynamic approach in the assessment and management of microbiological risks, issues of assessing the actual consumption of food products, taking into account their structure, the influence of the structure of nutrition on human health indicators, the results of risk assessment associated with food contamination with chemical and biological contaminants, assessment of the hazard of packaging materials were carried out.

The participants noted the importance of expanding the practice of interdisciplinary research, attracting specialists, including young ones, who know modern methods of mathematical modeling, biomechanics, biochemistry, etc., to solve sanitary-hygienic and sanitary-epidemiological problems, as well as expanding comprehensive international scientific cooperation in the field of research of leading human health risk factors from the standpoint of the formation of acute and chronic negative responses from critical organs and systems that determine the main loss of active life.

The round table was attended by 21 representatives of supervisory bodies and scientific institutions (8 from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, 12 from the Russian Federation, including 8 from the FBSI FNC, 1 from the Republic of Belarus). 69 comments were made to the reports on the forum. The program of the round table "Ensuring food safety in the CIS countries and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam" is presented in the appendix

Following the results of the scientific conference in the journal "Health Risk Analysis" No. 3, 2020, articles were published: * Isolation and description of staphylococcus aureus causing two widespread outbreaks of food poisoning in Vietnam. The authors: Lam Quoc Hung, Huong Minh Nguyen, Ta Ti Yen, Li Vinh Hoa, Tran Hong Ba, Pham Li Kuen, Do Ti Chu Huong, Nguyen Tan Chang, Lee Ti Hong Hao. https://journal.fcrisk.ru/2020/3/17 * Exposure assessment and risk characterization of n-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) in the diet of children aged six months to three years in Hanoi, Vietnam. The authors: Tran Shon Cao, Nguyen Ti Tan Lam, Wu Ngoc Tu, Bui Kwang Dong, Lee Ti Hong Hao, Luu Quoc Toan, N.A. Lebedev-Nesevrya. https://journal.fcrisk.ru/2020/3/10

In addition, 2 articles by employees of the National Institute for Food Control on food safety issues were published: * Isolation and identification of β-lactamase producing Pseudomonas spp. In ready-to-eat table greens Nguyen Tan Chang, Hong Nguyen Min, Pham Ti Loan, Lee Ti Hong Hao, Ta Ti Yen ("Health Risk Analysis" No. 1-2020) https://journal.fcrisk.ru/2020/1/11 * "Exposure to Staphylococcus aureus in food processing units of some elementary schools in Hanoi, Vietnam" Gyan Nguyen Thi, Chung Nguyen Thanh, Khao Le Thi Hong, Da Pham Xuan, Hai Pham Tkhe (Conference)