Background

About PigRisk project

The Issue

In Vietnam, pork makes up 75 per cent of meat consumed, with its production delivering substantial benefits to the smallholders who supply 84 per cent of the market. However, pork contains high levels of pathogens, an issue causing growing concern among the public, and policy makers alike, as they seek to better manage food safety, and animal diseases in pork value chains.

Due to their very nature, smallholder pig value chains are vulnerable to breakdowns in food safety. However, research by ILRI and partners show that these systems can be not only efficient, but also deliver safe meat, provided that appropriate risk management approaches are developed, and implemented.

The Opportunity

Based on perceptions that industrialization will improve productivity, profitability and food safety, Vietnamese policy-makers currently favor industrial pork production systems, as opposed to the more prevalent, smaller-scale systems There remains however, strong interest in better understanding food safety in smallholder pig value chains, whilst also developing, testing, and promoting incentive-based risk management approaches that are pro-poor.

Risk Management

In Vietnam, risk management can be as problematic as risk assessment. The dominant model is ‘command control regulation’ with food safety assurance provided through inspection, and punishment for violations. Studies by ILRI and others have shown that approaches such as this are seldom effective in managing disease in the smallholder sector and informal markets.

Alternatively, interventions that are based on harm reduction, and incentives whereby market actors gain tangible benefits from changes in practice may be more successful in improving food safety. Incentives vary from a price premium for retailers of safety assured pork, to adoption of improved practices in order to increase social status.

Although early results are promising, there is as yet limited evidence for large-scale adoption in informal markets of developing countries and this project provides an opportunity to develop stakeholder led solutions to pork safety.

Key questions

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the project will address three research questions:

• What are the human and economic costs of pork-borne diseases in smallholder pig value chains in Vietnam? What are the critical points/opportunities for risk management?
• What is the added utility of risk-based approaches to food safety and pork-borne disease (that focus on human health impacts) compared with the current hazard-based approaches (based on the presence of pathogens in pork)?
• What is the most appropriate role for incentive-based innovations in improving management of human and animal health risks in these smallholder pig value chains?

Anticipated Results

The project will primarily aim to quantify and analyze the impacts of animal and human health risks in smallholder pig value chains, and identify where and how to better manage these risks. Through engagement in the project and exposure to the evidence generated, we anticipate changes in knowledge, attitudes and practice among policymakers and implementing partners. These changes will lead to more support for smallholder pig systems, and better management of risk, resulting in direct benefits to producers, value chain actors and consumers.

A third area of impact anticipated is through capacity building in the staff and students of HUPH (formerly HSPH) and VNUA (formerly HUA) for applying risk-based approaches to food safety, and for decision-making. Short courses on Risk Analysis will also be developed and given to medical, and veterinary food safety and disease professionals.

About SafePork project

Issues

In Vietnam, pork is the most widely consumed meat and nearly all is sold in traditional (wet) markets. These markets supply nutritious and delicious food to millions of people. Yet, food hazards are pervasive, food scares common, trust in food low and enforcement capacity weak. Unsurprisingly, concerns over food safety are high and growing (for example, a nationally representative survey found that food safety was a major concern to the public). Despite concerns, little was known about the actual risk food posed to human health. This evidence gap motivated research—funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR)—to assess risks and opportunities for improving food safety (the PigRISK project). It developed the first quantification of the risk of food-borne diseases to human health and the first assessment of the cost of food-borne illness. Approximately one in five people fall ill each year due to pork-borne Salmonella, costing tens of millions of dollars each year. This evidence has been taken up at policy level through taskforces supported by the project. But the pork value chain is not just a potential source of disease, it is also crucial for Vietnamese livelihoods and nutrition. Wet markets are mainly supplied by smallholder farmers, and value chains provide employment to tens of thousands of traders, mostly women. Moreover, traditional markets supply pork more affordably and accessibly than the formal sector. Hence, it is important to develop ‘light-touch’ low-cost approaches tailored to the capacities of value chain actors which can be applied on a large scale.

Objectives

• Generate actionable evidence on the efficacy, feasibility and reach of current approaches to the improvement of pork safety in Vietnam.
• Design, pilot and evaluate light-touch, incentive-based, approaches to food safety in close partnership with the private sector.
• Agree with stakeholders a roadmap or theory of change through which project evidence can lead to safer food.
• Enhance engagement and benefit sharing for men and women in the pig value chain.
• Build capacity to understand and manage food safety risks, and improve risk communication among government partners, private sector actors, academics, donors and journalists.

Research methods

• Performance of selected food safety initiatives will be assessed using a newly developed tool.
• Economics experiments will investigate the incentives and push factors leading to behavioural change.
• In selected value chains, intervention safety will be tested through a randomized controlled trial.
• Participatory approaches will be used to design and monitor the theory of change.
• Gender-focused formative studies will explore sociocultural norms, roles and decision-making in the uptake of food safety interventions.
• Tailored needs-based training will be developed and delivered for a range of partners.

Interventions

These interventions will include simple inexpensive tests to detect the presence of food-borne pathogens, the use of portable ozone machines (www.aqua21.co.uk) for safe and effective disinfection, and the training and certification of traders, increasing transparency and traceability.

Private sector linkages

The private sector is central to the development of sustainable incentive-based approaches to making pork safer, ensuring the interventions developed are feasible. Researchers will continue to interact with the small-scale traditional sector, but add recently emerging food systems, such as high quality organic outlets and industrial zone canteens that supply large quantities of food.