Editorial · August 9, 2020
Online Grocery in Vietnam: How to Order Fresh Food Safely
Online grocery in Vietnam is simple to begin, yet fresh food makes mistakes costly. Meat, fish, eggs and cut vegetables can spoil fast, so the order only goes well if the seller, the delivery and the label all hold up. Here are five checks that take a few minutes and save a lot of trouble.
Check who the seller is
Start with the shop itself. A real seller shows a business name, an address, a phone number and an email on its site or app. If you cannot find these, do not order.
Look at how long the shop has been trading and what other buyers say about fresh items in particular. A shop that sells well-packed shelf goods may still handle raw fish badly. Read comments about the foods you plan to buy.
Vietnam has rules for sellers who trade through websites. Decree 52/2013 on e-commerce sets out what a selling site must disclose about the business, the goods, the price and how complaints are handled. Use that as a simple test: a serious seller makes this information easy to find.
Ask about delivery time
Fresh food is a race against the clock. Before you pay, find out when the order will arrive. A one or two hour window is far safer than a vague promise of the same day.
Pick a time when someone will be home. Food left at a gate or with a neighbour in the heat of the day is the most common way a good order goes bad.
If the app lets you choose a slot, choose the earliest one that suits you. For orders of meat or seafood, avoid long trips across the city when a nearer shop can serve you.
Understand the cold chain
The cold chain means the food stays cold from the shop to your door. It is the most important part of ordering fresh food online, and the part you can see least.
Ask the seller how chilled and frozen items are packed. Good sellers use insulated boxes or bags with ice packs and keep raw meat apart from vegetables and ready-to-eat food.
Touch the pack when it arrives. Chilled food should feel cold, and frozen food should feel hard. If it feels warm or soft, take a photo and contact the seller right away.
The Law on Food Safety of 2010 puts duties on those who sell food, including rules on storage and transport. A seller who treats those duties seriously will usually be happy to explain how the food is kept cold.
Read the label and the dates
Packed food should carry a label. Look for the product name, the maker, the origin, the production date and the use-by date. The Law on Food Safety sets labelling duties for packaged food, so a missing label is a warning sign.
For loose items such as vegetables or fresh meat, ask the seller where the goods came from and when they were prepared or picked. A plain, specific reply from the seller builds trust. If the reply dodges the question, buy elsewhere.
Check the date on arrival, not only at the time of ordering. Items with a short life left should be eaten or frozen the same day.
Know your options if something is wrong
Read the return and refund rules before you pay. Many shops do not take back fresh food once it has left the shop, so ask what happens if an item is spoiled, wrong or missing.
Keep your order screen, the receipt and photos of the pack and the food. Report the problem the same day, in writing, through the app or the shop's page.
Under Decree 52/2013 a selling site is expected to publish how it deals with complaints. If a seller has no clear way to complain, count that against it before you order.
A short habit helps most: start with a small first order, see how it arrives, and only then buy more. This is general information, not medical advice. For illness after eating a delivered meal, see a doctor and keep the packaging.
Sources
- Law on Food Safety, Law No. 55/2010/QH12, National Assembly of Vietnam, 2010.
- Decree 52/2013/ND-CP on e-commerce, Government of Vietnam, 2013.
A place on this register is not for sale.