Tighten management of functional foods

After a series of upsetting incidents related to fake food, the Ministry of Health proposed tightening management with the measure that businesses will not be allowed to self-declare food supplements but will be required to register product declarations.

Thousands of boxes labeled as health food were discovered by people thrown all over the sidewalk of Nguyen Lan Street, Khuong Mai Ward, Thanh Xuan ( Hanoi ).

Post-audit loophole

Dr. Tran Viet Nga, Director of the Department of Food Safety ( Ministry of Health ), said that Decree No. 15/2018/ND-CP of the Government detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Food Safety stipulates the mechanism for self-declaration of products, creating favorable conditions for businesses to self-declare and take responsibility for the quality and safety of products. However, some businesses have taken advantage of this mechanism to do illegal business.

With the self-declaration mechanism, enterprises can self-declare and produce immediately without having the state management agency review the documents. Taking advantage of this openness, some enterprises self-declare medical nutritional products or products for special diets, especially food supplements, this is a law-evading behavior that deserves condemnation.

In addition, the self-declaration procedure is quite simple, the documents are not complicated and there is no fee. Therefore, many businesses rush to self-declare their products, but the actual production and business quantity may not match the declared quantity, causing difficulties for state management agencies in inspection and post-audit.

According to Ms. Nga, Decree 15/2018/ND-CP stipulates that most foods are self-declared by enterprises, only 4 groups of products must be registered for declaration before circulation: health protection foods, nutritional foods for special diets, foods fortified with micronutrients and new products in terms of uses and ingredients. The provincial People's Committee receives the dossiers, issues declaration papers, advertising confirmation papers; health protection foods are received by the Food Safety Department. If there are violations, the locality is responsible for handling them.

To overcome the above “loopholes” and shortcomings, the Ministry of Health has drafted a Decree amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 15/2018/ND-CP. The biggest highlight of this Draft Decree is the regulation that enterprises are not allowed to self-declare food supplements as before, but are required to register the product declaration for the management agency to appraise and post-inspecte.

According to the Ministry of Health, dietary supplements are self-declared - leading to businesses deliberately classifying products in the wrong group, exaggerating their effects, and not complying with quality standards. When discovered, the products are already widely circulated, making them difficult to handle thoroughly.

Accordingly, the Draft Decree clearly stipulates that food supplements will be required to register a product declaration. Health protection products, medical nutrition, food for special diets and nutrition for children under 36 months of age must also have a declaration file from the research and development stage until before circulation.

Enterprises must also publish quality indicators, instead of only publishing safety indicators as before. If there is a violation, the competent authority will revoke the certificate, advertising confirmation, product declaration dossier and temporarily stop accepting new dossiers until the violation is resolved.

The draft decree also requires establishments producing the above product groups to have a certificate of qualified food safety facilities meeting international standards such as GMP, HACCP, ISO 22000, or equivalent. The Ministry of Science and Technology will supervise organizations that are granted certification.

The draft also stipulates the responsibilities and tasks of the agency receiving the self-declaration dossier, providing comments when receiving the dossier, posting the dossier on the electronic information page, developing and implementing a plan for post-auditing the dossier. If violations are detected, the receiving agency will take samples to monitor the quality and safety of food products circulating on the market.

To serve post-inspection, control and quality improvement after food product declaration, the draft decree also proposes regulations on revoking the Certificate of food safety qualified facility, Certificate of advertising content, Certificate of product declaration registration and removing product information posted on the electronic information page of the competent state management agency receiving product declaration dossiers.

Tight control of advertising, cross-sectoral responsibility

To prevent false advertising, the draft decree requires increased supervision of advertising activities on e-commerce platforms and social networks; inspection and supervision of advertising business units, advertising carriers, and influencers conducting food advertising. Parties participating in advertising must disclose the relationship between the influencer and the advertising sponsor, comply with the code of professional conduct in food advertising activities, and be responsible for the content of the advertisement.

The draft amends and supplements a number of articles of Decree No. 15/2018/ND-CP requiring relevant parties to inspect and supervise advertising business units, advertising carriers, and influencers conducting food advertising.

The draft also stipulates specific responsibilities of a number of relevant ministries and branches in food safety management, including the Ministries of Health, Industry and Trade; Agriculture and Environment, Finance, Science and Technology, Culture, Sports and Tourism, Public Security, and Provincial People's Committees. This aims to enhance the responsibility of ministries and branches to proactively manage and prevent businesses from abusing the production of fake products and falsifying test certificates; trading and advertising on e-commerce platforms and social platforms; and controlling prices of functional foods and milk for children under 6 years old according to the Law on Prices.

The draft also adds regulations on transferring domestic consumption, changing product usage purposes and tightening inspection of imported food.

In addition, the draft changes the content and method of food safety inspection for imported food; clearly defines cases of exemption from inspection, document inspection, sensory inspection, or mandatory sampling to ensure quality control of raw materials for internal production. This is an important new point, consistent with management practices and specialized laws.

DO THOA

Source: https://nhandan.vn/siet-chat-quan-ly-thuc-pham-chuc-nang-post892411.html