General review and inspection of compliance with laws on pharmaceuticals and food safety

Detecting cases with signs of production and trade of fake functional foods in Bac Giang

Strengthening post-inspection of food and functional food advertising nationwide

The Department of Food Safety, Ministry of Health has just issued a document requesting localities to strengthen inspection, post-inspection, and detection of advertising of food and functional foods on media, social networks, e-commerce sites, e-commerce platforms, and strictly handle related violations.

At the same time, it is recommended that localities publicly disclose and warn about violating links and addresses so that consumers avoid buying and using food and functional food products on violating links and addresses, to avoid affecting people's health and economy.

In case the subject of the advertising violation cannot be identified, the Ministry of Health recommends that the Department of Health of provinces and cities; the Department of Food Safety of Ho Chi Minh City; the Food Safety Management Board of Da Nang City and the Food Safety and Hygiene Sub-Departments of provinces and cities coordinate with the Department of Information and Communications, the Department of Culture of the locality or the Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism; the Department of E-commerce, Ministry of Industry and Trade to identify the subject and handle it according to current regulations.

Implementing the direction of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Health - Standing Committee of the Central Inter-sectoral Steering Committee on Food Safety has just issued a document requesting members of the Central Inter-sectoral Steering Committee on Food Safety and People's Committees of provinces and cities to strengthen market management, inspection and examination of food products on the market, focusing on detecting ingredients of unknown origin, fake food, fake milk, fake health protection food, poor quality food, food that has not yet carried out self-declaration/registered declaration procedures on the market, in order to promptly detect, prevent and strictly handle violations.

Strengthening the review and handling according to the law for violations of food advertising on the internet or other mass media...

Review regulations on ensuring food safety for food products, especially for dairy products, nutritional products, and functional foods; proactively amend or propose to competent authorities to amend current regulations when necessary to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of food safety management.

Thanh Hoa Police seized fake drugs and fake health protection foods

Each year, approximately 23,800 food products self-declare.

Regarding food, according to Ms. Tran Viet Nga, Director of the Department of Food Safety, Ministry of Health, each year there are about 23,800 foods self-declaring their products, of which nearly 4,800 products self-declaring themselves as food supplements; about 9,200 foods register for product declarations, of which about 8,800 are health protection foods, nearly 100 are medical nutritional foods and more than 300 are foods for special diets.

The Food Safety Law and Decree 15/2018/ND-CP detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Food Safety Law have assigned the responsibility for food safety management to 3 Ministries: Health, Agriculture and Environment, Industry and Trade and the People's Committees of provinces and cities. Food products must self-declare or register their declarations at specialized agencies designated by the People's Committees of provinces, except for health protection foods that must register their declarations at the Ministry of Health.

The dossier when registering for declaration and self-declaration only requires the enterprise to submit a food safety test certificate (including safety indicators) tested within 1 year, performed by a testing laboratory recognized as meeting ISO-17025, but does not require product quality testing; product declaration of safety indicators.

Because it empowers businesses to self-declare and take responsibility for product quality, the business's documents sent to the authorities are not reviewed and the business can immediately produce and do business.

However, for profit, some businesses have disregarded business ethics to produce fake goods, goods that do not guarantee quality, or taken advantage of open policies to publicize as many products as possible.

According to Ms. Nga, allowing organizations and individuals to register for product declaration only requires a business registration and the cost of evaluating the registration dossier is too low, self-declaration of products is free of charge, so the amount of dietary supplements products that businesses self-declare and register for declaration is very large. While the declaration dossier is valid forever, it puts pressure on the management agency in post-inspection, inspection, and examination, because it is difficult to be close to reality.

Currently, there is no system linking and publicizing information on food products that have been registered/self-declared from the central to local levels, so it is difficult to look up product information as a basis for inspection and post-inspection. There is also a lack of human resources to carry out food safety management from the central to local levels.

Organize peak periods of general review and inspection of pharmaceuticals, food safety...

On May 2, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh signed Official Dispatch No. 55/CD-TTg, requesting ministries, branches and localities to strengthen coordination and strictly handle organizations and individuals involved in the production and trade of fake medicines, fake milk and fake health protection foods, focusing on implementing the following key contents:

- The Ministry of Public Security shall speed up the investigation of discovered cases and incidents; coordinate with relevant agencies to promptly handle them in accordance with the law; direct local police to continue to monitor the situation, promptly detect, prevent, and not miss any violations, and handle violations of the law related to the production and trade of fake medicines, fake milk, and fake health protection foods.

- The Ministry of Health shall strengthen inspection of compliance with legal regulations on pharmaceuticals and food safety, and at the same time pay attention to strengthening state management of cosmetics, preventing violations. Closely coordinate with the Ministry of Public Security in investigating and handling cases of production and trade of fake medicines, fake milk and fake health protection foods; at the same time, closely coordinate with ministries, branches and localities to urgently review problems and inadequacies in legal regulations to promptly amend and supplement according to authority or propose and recommend competent authorities to amend and supplement issues beyond authority.

- The Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of National Defense, according to their functions, tasks, and authority, shall coordinate with relevant ministries, agencies, and localities to strengthen the activities of the National Steering Committee 389; step up inspection and supervision of circulation and distribution activities at retail channels, agents, e-commerce platforms, etc., promptly detect, prevent, and strictly handle the production and trade of counterfeit goods, and resolutely implement tasks and solutions to combat smuggling, trade fraud, production, and trading of counterfeit and poor-quality goods, especially counterfeit medicines, fake milk, and fake health foods; and closely coordinate with the Ministry of Public Security in investigating and handling cases of counterfeit production and trade.

- The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism coordinates with the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Health and relevant agencies in reviewing and handling violations in advertising activities in the press, on the internet, on social networking platforms, on publications related to cases of production and trade of fake medicines, fake milk and fake health protection foods according to the provisions of law; strengthen inspection activities on compliance with legal regulations on advertising, especially advertising of goods on medicines, milk and health protection foods, promptly prevent and strictly handle violations.

- The People's Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities shall direct competent agencies to organize peak periods of general inspection and examination of compliance with the law on pharmaceuticals and food safety for establishments trading in medicines and health protection foods in the area and strictly handle violations according to regulations; inspect and handle the advertising and trading of medicines and health protection foods on the internet; promptly review and recall fake medicines, fake milk and fake health protection foods that have been discovered in the area, to promptly prevent and minimize harm to the people.

- Ministries, agencies and localities, according to their functions, tasks and authority, shall strengthen measures to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of pharmaceutical management, food safety and management of advertising and trading of medicines and health protection foods; promptly report and propose to competent authorities on issues beyond their authority.

Thuy Ha

Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/tong-ra-soat-kiem-tra-viec-chap-hanh-phap-luat-ve-duoc-an-toan-thuc-pham-102250506143822181.htm