Ho Chi Minh City reports campaign to check for fake drugs and fake food

Implementing the Prime Minister 's telegram No. 55 dated May 2, 2025 on strengthening coordination and strictly handling acts of producing and trading fake drugs, milk and health protection foods, the authorities in the old Ho Chi Minh City simultaneously launched a peak inspection campaign in many fields.

On June 30, before the merger, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee reported on inspection and handling work.

Many violations in the medical field in Ho Chi Minh City

According to the report, from May 19 to 31, 2025, the inspection team of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health inspected 15 establishments (13 wholesalers, 2 retailers of drugs), and did not detect any establishments trading in counterfeit products according to the announcement of the Ministry of Health . However, 4 establishments were administratively fined with a total amount of 258.4 million VND.

In addition, during the post-inspection work, the Department of Health inspected 6 more drug wholesalers, 40 drug retailers, 6 medicinal herb businesses and also did not detect any counterfeit goods.

However, the inspection results recorded many violations such as professional staff being absent during operating hours; not calibrating equipment to monitor drug storage conditions; not maintaining storage conditions according to labeling requirements; not fully storing invoices and supplier records. Books do not have complete data on prescriptions and import and export inventory; not periodically reporting on special controlled drugs, mixing prescription and non-prescription drugs.

Ho Chi Minh City Market Management Department inspected and handled a violation case of drugs of unknown origin with a value of 16.8 million VND.

The inspection team of the People's Committee of districts, towns and Thu Duc City (old) inspected 1,623 pharmacies (21.3% of the total number in operation) and 338 clinics and discovered 47 establishments in violation.

Specifically, 27 drug retail establishments were fined VND176.5 million. 20 clinics were fined VND181 million for failing to report changes in practitioners, missing medical records, incomplete signs, unregistered practitioners, and using drugs and cosmetic equipment in violation of regulations.

Regarding quality control and monitoring, the Ho Chi Minh City Drug, Cosmetic and Food Testing Center took samples for testing, focusing on counterfeit products according to the announcements of the Ministry of Health and has not yet discovered any establishments selling counterfeit products. This unit also took 68 other samples of drugs currently circulating on the market for quality testing.

Ho Chi Minh City reports campaign results of testing fake drugs and fake food - Photo 1.

Inspection team of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health inspects a clinic. PHOTO: DUY TINH

Many violations in the food sector

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Food Safety inspected 273 establishments producing and trading functional foods, milk, food supplements... and fined 5 establishments with a total amount of 270 million VND, suspended the operation of 1 establishment. Forced to recall products and recall the declaration of violating products such as HI CANXI food supplement Goldmilk brand, Sure nutritional milk Gold Beta brand, Vita Nutri Diabetic Gold milk powder.

During the inspection, the Food Safety Department took 66 food samples for testing and is awaiting results.

The Ho Chi Minh City Market Management Department inspected and handled 35 food violations, including 2 cases related to milk and 3 cases related to functional foods. The total fine was 408 million VND.

Temporarily seized 47,603 product units and 5.3 tons of goods (worth 1.46 billion VND), including: 4,677 bottles of Ensure milk; 2,247 boxes of health food.

Common food violations are smuggled goods, goods of unknown origin, and goods without business licenses.

Illegal advertising

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Culture and Sports inspected and handled 5 cases of illegal outdoor advertising, imposing a total fine of 120 million VND. One of the cases was Thoi Dai Advertising Company Limited, which advertised the milk product "Milo combined with A2 cool milk" without notifying the management agency of the advertising content.

Difficulties, problems and recommendations

The former Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee has raised a number of difficulties and problems in the inspection and handling process:

Businesses know in advance about the inspection so they respond (temporarily close, hide goods).
It is difficult to handle violations of online advertising and business because the subject (owner of the product, account, website, etc.) cannot be identified.
Social networks have servers located abroad, making it difficult to request an end to violations.
When invited to work, many individuals removed the violating content and blocked access to the site.
Lack of tools to store evidence on radio and television.

In addition, Decree 15/2018 of the Government stipulates that nutritional products for children up to 36 months of age must be registered for declaration, but there is no explanation of the terminology for this type of product. In the case of products that are registered for declaration but do not have national technical regulations, current regulations do not specifically stipulate the basis for registration for declaration according to manufacturer standards. However, the management agency has no basis to consider the appropriate safety indicators according to manufacturer standards.

Ho Chi Minh City recommends perfecting legal regulations related to food safety, especially functional foods.

Amend Decree 15/2018 to require enterprises to develop product standards for products that do not have national technical regulations. Specify the minimum content of the product standards so that competent authorities have a basis for post-inspection and comparison with test results. Supplement guidance on determining safety and quality indicators for products that do not have national regulations.

Source: https://ttbc-hcm.gov.vn/tp-hcm-bao-cao-chien-dich-kiem-tra-thuoc-gia-thuc-pham-gia-1019067.html