Food safety is increasingly an issue as households convert to buying food. Control of imported foods, especially from China, is still weak. Dairy products, confectionary, fresh fruit and vegetables, and pig and poultry internal organs are prone to high levels of dangerous substances and the use of chemicals for preservation. Meanwhile, food stability is an issue due to shocks such as land loss, unemployment and lack of a safety net. At the same time, overconsumption and unhealthy eating habits are on the rise as consequences of the nutritional transition towards buying food and interlinkages with urban areas. There is a cruel irony about the consequences of the nutritional transition in Vietnam. Previous generations fled the country in rickety boats to escape starvation and extreme austerity under communism during the cold war and they are being replaced by a new generation whose health and wellbeing are under threat in the form of overconsumption.