Tighten up "post-inspection" work for functional foods

Functional foods (FF) are conditional business items, directly related to the lives and health of consumers. However, recently, authorities across the country have continuously cracked down on many cases of unsafe, counterfeit, fake, and non-compliant quality FFs... This also raises issues with the "post-inspection" work, which needs to be more rigorous and thorough.

A survey by the Vietnam Functional Food Association shows that the Vietnamese functional food market is growing at 15% per year.

On June 10, Cam Pha Regional General Hospital admitted and treated a 16-year-old female student with acute liver failure after using a weight loss product purchased online. Test results and imaging diagnosis at the time of admission showed that the female student's liver enzyme index increased many times higher than normal, with severe liver dysfunction... requiring active treatment.

Notably, according to the announcement, the above product only uses herbal ingredients, vitamins..., is produced on a modern production line, meets GMP standards, and meets ISO 22000 standards.

So what is the actual quality of the above weight loss drug, is it really as announced by the unit or not, we are waiting for the authorities to answer.

However, in reality, there have been many recorded cases of "losing money and getting sick", even leaving long-term consequences for health, after using some types of dietary supplements that do not ensure quality in the past.

The type of weight loss supplement that the female student used.

Currently, there is a big "loophole" that subjects take advantage of, which is the product self-declaration mechanism.

Doctor Luu Duc Dung, Deputy Head of the Provincial Food Safety Department, said: According to current regulations, dietary supplements are classified into 4 groups: Food supplements, health protection foods, medical nutritional foods, and foods for special diets. Of which, the group of dietary supplements in the self-declared dossier is only controlled for safety indicators; the two groups of medical nutritional foods and foods for special diets are not controlled for quality. Only the group of health protection foods is controlled for quality indicators, but the declaration dossier is also very simple.

In addition, products called dietary supplements are allowed to be produced and sold immediately after the enterprise has announced them. Enterprises are also allowed to advertise themselves without the management agency confirming the advertising content. More dangerously, current regulations do not have a mechanism to monitor the self-declaration mechanism. The current self-declaration dossier only controls the testing of safety indicators, while to control product quality, controlling quality indicators is important. Not testing quality indicators, not verifying the effects, and being allowed to advertise themselves without confirmation is an "ideal condition" for bad guys.

Many types of dietary supplements were thrown into landfills after a widespread tightening of inspections by authorities in Ho Chi Minh City.

To solve this problem, state management agencies are stepping up post-inspection work. On May 6, the Department of Food Safety ( Ministry of Health ) also issued Official Dispatch No. 960/ATTP-NDTT to the Department of Health of provinces and centrally-run cities; Department of Food Safety and Hygiene of provinces and cities on strengthening post-inspection of foods and functional foods. On May 29, the Department of Drug Administration also requested drug and pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing facilities to ensure compliance with and strict compliance with the principles and standards of "Good Manufacturing Practice" (GMP) in accordance with regulations; strictly control the origin, quality and use of pharmaceutical ingredients; review the production process, production records, testing records, etc.

Notably, also during this time, the number of businesses sending official dispatches to the Ministry of Health to withdraw their health protection product declaration dossiers also increased rapidly.

The Testing Center, Department of Health conducted sampling to evaluate some quality indicators of some types of dietary supplements on the market during the inspection in June 2025.

To address this gap, the Ministry of Health is presiding over the draft amendment to Decree 15/2018/ND-CP regulating the above field in the direction of radically changing the post-inspection method, proposing to apply a strict pre-inspection model of records and regular post-inspection, and surprise post-inspection.

Mr. Nguyen Minh Tuan, Deputy Director of the Quang Ninh Department of Health, said that the health sector is also actively coordinating with relevant agencies to step up inspections of 100% of drug and dietary supplement retail establishments in the province. The inspections focus on both imported and domestically produced goods. In addition to checking legal documents, the provincial testing center will also step up sampling and post-inspection of products in circulation. In addition, the health sector and related sectors will continue to step up the detection and handling of cases of selling fake drugs and dietary supplements with exaggerated advertisements - "miracle drugs" advertised online.

Nguyen Trang

Source: https://baoquangninh.vn/siet-chat-cong-tac-hau-kiem-doi-voi-cac-loai-thuc-pham-chuc-nang-3362778.html