MM Mega Market Vietnam: Food safety is top priority

The aquaculture platform in Can Tho supplies more than 70 percent of aquatic products for 19 MM centers with annual output of nearly 2,000 tonnes

Building safe food supply chains

“As a food supplier to approximately one million customers including restaurants, hotels and canteens (HORECA) in Vietnam, from the outset we gave top priority to food quality and safety. To ensure quality and safety supply, we need to control the whole process, from selection of seeds and breeds to production, harvest and transportation to MM Mega Market centers”, said Phidsanu Pongwatana, Managing Director of MM Mega Market Vietnam.

In 2005, MM Mega Market Vietnam developed and put into operation a vegetable and fruit platform in Da Lat. At present, in the vegetable and fruit platform, MM is collaborating with nearly 300 farming households of main material sources in Lam Dong Province, including Don Duong, Duc Trong and Da Lat. Covering a 250-ha source area, every year, this depot is churning out more than 12,000 tonnes of VietGAP-qualified vegetables and fruits to serve consumers nationwide.

Following the success of the vegetable and fruit platform in Da Lat, MM Mega Market Vietnam built an aquatic product platform in Can Tho in 2011. This project is an exemplary case of public-private partnership between MM Mega Market and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, aiming to provide a quality fresh aquatic product supply chain for the Vietnamese market and adding value to agricultural products. Currently, the platform supplies more than 70 percent of aquatic products for 19 MM centers with annual output of nearly 2,000 tonnes.

Under the circumstance of pork hygiene and safety being a major concern for Vietnamese consumers, MM built a pork platform in Dong Nai Province in June 2017. The platform has cooperated with farmers and pork producers in raising pigs following VietGAHP standards with strict controls under a closed process. Currently, MM is cooperating with 400 farmers from Dong Nai Province to supply the market with more than 250 tonnes of clean and safe pork per month.

In October 2018, MM Mega Market developed and put into operation a fruit platform in Ben Tre Province, which aims to provide safe and high quality fruits to 19 MM centers, as well as to export Vietnamese fruit to Thailand, China and other Southeast Asian countries.

According to Phidsanu, MM Mega Market is applying VietGAP standards in manufacturing and HACCP standards in controlling the risk of food hygiene and safety at these food platforms. In these food platforms, MM’s agronomists work closely with local farmers and cooperatives from seed selection to production plan, harvest, packaging, and hauling to platforms, without going through middlemen as a way to assure MM’s best standards in terms of quality and food safety.

Customer support

Not only developing safe food supply chains, MM also applies QR code plastering application to help customers seek traceability of food product origin. Using a smart phone installed with a QR code plastering application and simple steps, customers will be able to easily trace the origin of products.

Being particularly interested in the QR code app, the Managing Director of MM in Vietnam, Phidsanu, said: “At MM Mega Market, food quality, hygiene and safety is the top priority in compliance with strict quality management regulations and standards. Thereof, I believe that the deployment of the QR code plastering application is a crucial step to protecting the fundamental rights of customers to enable their access to safe and quality products, as well as to make it convenient for customers to verify products.”

At present, MM is applying product origin traceability for a majority of vegetable and pork products at 19 centers nationwide. All products on shelves of the MM supermarket system have QR codes so that customers can easily check product information including production date, production place and product certificate.

“In developed countries, traceability is considered a consumer protection solution. We have received positive feedbacks from customers about the product traceability application in MM centers. This application not only contributes to solving the “dirty food” issue and maintaining consumer trust, but also enhances the reputation of Vietnamese agricultural producers and distributors like MM”, Phidsanu said.

In recent years, food safety has been a major concern for the whole society. Committed to contribute to Vietnam’s sustainable development, MM Mega Market keeps pursuing a customer-first development strategy that puts top priority on food safety.