Disseminating new regulations in the field of food safety.

(Chinhphu.vn) – On February 2nd, the Ministry of Health chaired a meeting to disseminate Government Resolution No. 6613/ND-CP and Decree No. 46/2026/ND-CP concerning the announcement and registration of food products and guidance on the Law on Food Safety. These two documents will take effect from January 26th, 2026, and supplement the regulations to tighten management from production to market distribution.

Deputy Minister of Health Do Xuan Tuyen chaired the meeting - Photo: VGP/HM

At the meeting, Dr. Chu Quoc Thinh, Acting Director of the Food Safety Department, Ministry of Health, emphasized that, in addition to administrative procedure reforms, these documents will strengthen management from pre-inspection to post-inspection.

According to the Food Safety Administration, in recent times, there have been many serious food safety violations, with many businesses exploiting shortcomings in Government Decree 15/2018/ND-CP to produce and trade counterfeit food and milk products. Therefore, these regulations are being developed to strengthen management, ensure comprehensive control, and add provisions to tighten management from production to market distribution, combining both pre- and post-inspection.

Organizations and individuals are fully responsible for the documentation and its quality. product​

Specifically, regarding the production stage , the new regulations require that facilities producing medical nutritional foods, foods for special diets, food supplements, and nutritional products for children up to 36 months old must apply a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) certificate, or an ISO 22000 food safety management system certificate, or an International Food Standard (IFS), or a Global Standard for Food Safety (BRC), or a Food Safety System (FSSC 22000) certificate, or an equivalent certificate, or a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certificate in their production and business operations.

To prevent commercial companies from exploiting loopholes, such as registering products under their own names without a clear binding relationship with the manufacturer, self-declaring product standards, producing only one batch, then ceasing business operations while continuing to advertise and exaggerate the nature and uses of the product when releasing other batches to the market, the new Resolution stipulates that the manufacturing facility must register the product, declare the applicable quality standards, and declare conformity. Accordingly, organizations and individuals have the right to produce and trade products and bear full responsibility for the legality of the documentation and the quality and safety of the declared products.

Dr. Chu Quoc Thinh, Acting Director of the Food Safety Department, Ministry of Health, presents the new contents of the field of food safety - Photo: VGP/HM

Regarding pre-market control, the new regulations strengthen the management of the declaration of applicable standards (previously self-declaration) . Accordingly, individuals must declare the applicable standards for pre-packaged processed foods, food additives, food processing aids, packaging, and utensils in direct contact with food that lack complete technical standards for quality and safety indicators, or do not have a certification body to certify compliance with the corresponding national technical standards as prescribed by law on standards and technical regulations, or lack a conformity assessment method; micronutrients ; food supplements containing only vitamins and minerals and without health warnings; and product test results must include both safety and quality indicators…

At the same time, the new regulations stipulate that in cases where a product has been self-declared before the new Decree takes effect (January 26, 2026), it must complete the declaration of applicable standards as prescribed in the Resolution within 12 months from the effective date of the Resolution; otherwise, the dossier will no longer be valid.

Regulations stipulate that within 15 days of receiving the application for the declaration of applicable standards, if no written comments are received, the competent state management agency shall publish the application on its website or online public service system, and the organization or individual is entitled to produce and trade the product. The organization or individual is fully responsible for the legal validity of the application and the quality and safety of the declared product.

Strengthen strict control over dietary supplements.

Strict control over dietary supplements

To prevent recent incidents of counterfeit food, especially functional foods (which have similar technical properties to oral pharmaceutical formulations but with more unstable and complex chemical interactions between components), and learning from the management experiences of several countries (such as China, South Korea, Japan, and the United States), the new Resolution has added more documentation requirements for products that must register a declaration, aiming for stricter regulations on registration documents to control the composition, safety and quality standards of the product, the production process, packaging materials in direct contact with the product, and the product's features and uses from the research and development stage to the product registration stage before it is released onto the market.

Regulations stipulate that within 90 days of receiving a complete product declaration registration dossier, the receiving agency is responsible for evaluating the dossier and issuing a product declaration registration acceptance certificate or requesting amendments or additions. During the evaluation period, the receiving agency is responsible for establishing specialized subcommittees to conduct the evaluation. If necessary, the receiving agency may establish an Advisory Council to issue the product declaration acceptance certificate, but this council will not participate directly in the evaluation of the declaration dossier.

Regulations stipulate that product declaration registration dossiers submitted before the effective date of the Resolution, or food products that have been granted a Certificate of Acceptance of Product Declaration Registration, or food supplements that have switched from self-declaration to product declaration registration before the effective date of the new Decree, must complete the product declaration registration dossier in accordance with the provisions of the new Resolution within 24 months from the effective date of the Resolution.

For pre-packaged processed foods, food additives, food processing aids, packaging, and utensils that come into direct contact with food, a declaration of conformity will be registered for the entire product line if technical standards are in place.

Cases exempt from the standard publication procedure.

Cases exempt from the procedure for declaring applicable standards include: domestically produced or imported products and raw materials used solely for the production and processing of export goods; domestically produced or imported products and raw materials (original products) used solely for internal production by organizations or individuals and not for consumption in the domestic market; imported products and raw materials used solely for aid purposes; imported products and raw materials used solely for testing to support product declaration; and imported products and raw materials used solely for scientific research.

Cases exempt from state inspection

Regarding state inspection of imported food safety, the new regulations remove the exemption from state inspection of imported food safety for products that have been granted a Certificate of Acceptance of Product Declaration Registration; and for imported products and raw materials used solely for internal production.

Additional regulations regarding conversion to domestic consumption or change of intended use for food products: Food products and raw materials exported that are converted to domestic consumption must undergo customs procedures as with imported food products, while also complying with food safety regulations as with food products manufactured for domestic consumption.

The new regulations also add provisions on advertising, such as: strengthening the management of business activities and advertising on e-commerce platforms and social media platforms by publicly disclosing information on product registration documents or quality declaration documents, and advertising documents certified by competent authorities on e-commerce platforms and social media platforms; monitoring businesses that issue advertisements, those who transmit advertisements, influencers who advertise food products, and requiring celebrities and influencers to clearly disclose their sponsorship relationships when advertising.

Strengthen post-inspection monitoring

Regarding post-market surveillance, the new regulations strengthen supervision to ensure that products circulating in the market are of high quality and safe, and add provisions for planned and unannounced inspections.

Within 30 days from the date of issuance of the product declaration registration certificate, the receiving agency is responsible for providing the testing methods for safety and quality indicators of the product to designated testing facilities serving state management of food safety, in order to conduct quality monitoring sampling in the market.

The Ministries of Health, Agriculture and Environment, Industry and Trade, Science and Technology, and provincial People's Committees are responsible for reviewing, updating, and promptly amending and supplementing national technical regulations, local technical regulations, and national standards in the field of food quality and safety. This is an important content for developing common standards for functional foods. Stricter control of product quality will serve as the basis for a food testing system to support the state in sampling and monitoring the market.

The new regulations also add provisions for revoking administrative procedures: the Certificate of Acceptance of Registration of Food Product Declarations and the removal of product information posted on the website of the competent state management agency receiving the product declaration dossier, and measures for handling recalled products; temporarily suspending the acceptance and processing of product declaration registration dossiers, revoking Certificates of Food Safety Compliance, and Certificates of Advertising Content Confirmation.

Hien Minh

Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/pho-bien-quy-dinh-moi-ve-linh-vuc-an-toan-thuc-pham-10226020215300675.htm