Functional foods do not replace medicine.

People need to be careful when buying and using functional foods. Illustration photo

According to the guidance of the Food Safety Department ( Ministry of Health ), health protection foods are products used to supplement the daily diet to maintain, enhance, improve the functions of the human body, and reduce the risk of disease. Health protection foods are not drugs and cannot replace medicine. In case of illness, people need to go to a medical facility for examination and timely treatment.

Health protection foods must be granted a certificate of registration of product declaration by the Department of Food Safety, Ministry of Health before being circulated on the market. All information about health protection food products granted a certificate of registration of product declaration and a certificate of advertising content is made public on the website of the Department of Food Safety, the Public Service Portal of the Ministry of Health. People can look up before deciding to buy the product.

To avoid buying counterfeit, fake, or poor quality goods, the Food Safety Department recommends that people carefully check the product information on the product label or secondary label for imported products with full information such as: product name; date of manufacture, expiry date; ingredients, quantitative ingredients; quantity; instructions for use, instructions for preservation; warnings about risks (if any); name and address of the responsible trader and product manufacturing facility; product declaration registration receipt number, advertising content confirmation number (if any).

In particular, these products must have the phrase: "Health protection food", "This food is not a medicine, does not have the effect of replacing medicine".

The Food Safety Department reminds people to distinguish signs of violations in advertising when viewing advertisements on social networks. For example, if a health food product is advertised with content such as: "Drinking health food will cure the disease"; or has images of doctors and medical staff introducing the product, without the line "This food is not a medicine and does not have the effect of replacing medicine" are advertising contents that violate the law.

Regarding the situation of medical staff advertising functional foods and milk, the Ministry of Health has just issued a document requesting the health departments of provinces and cities to strengthen inspection, detection, and strict handling, and absolutely not cover up or tolerate violations. At the same time, strengthen the dissemination of legal regulations and timely information to raise awareness and sense of responsibility of medical staff, patients, relatives and people in participating in detecting and combating violations.

Thereby ensuring the health and life safety of patients, preventing violations of legal regulations.

Peace

Source: https://baodongnai.com.vn/xa-hoi/202504/thuc-pham-chuc-nang-khong-co-tac-dung-thay-the-thuoc-chua-benh-0bc59bb/