Businesses will die if they have to add iodine, iron, and zinc to food.
The draft amendment to a number of articles of Decree No. 09/2016/ND-CP regulating the fortification of micronutrients in food (Decree 09) is being consulted by the Ministry of Health, still maintaining the regulation: Salt used for direct consumption or used in food processing must be fortified with iodine; wheat flour used in food processing must be fortified with iron and zinc.
At the workshop, many associations said that this regulation is not consistent with reality and international experience, causing great difficulties for production and business. This regulation only takes into account the benefits of supplementing micronutrients for groups of people with deficiencies, but does not take into account the health risks for groups of people who have sufficient or excess micronutrients when mass supplementation is required.
Explaining, expert Vu The Thanh, member of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Food Safety, said that iodine is a component that creates thyroid hormones, helping the development of children's brains. If children lack iodine, it can lead to dullness, mental retardation, mental retardation, and distorted hearing, speech, and thinking abilities. Pregnant women who lack iodine also affect the development of the fetus' brain. Adults with iodine deficiency disorders, especially women, are mentally and physically tired, and work sluggishly...
However, it must be noted that iodine is abundant in the sea, in the air in coastal areas, in seafood such as shrimp, crab, fish, squid, octopus and seaweed, sea salt... The body cannot produce iodine, so it must be obtained from food sources. However, depending on each person's physical condition, the supplementation rate and method will also be different.
According to Mr. Thanh, experience from countries around the world shows that the governments of the United States, Canada, Australia... often use solutions to encourage people to use iodized salt; their domestic consumer markets allow the sale of all types of salt such as iodized salt, refined salt, sea salt (without anti-caking agents and iodine for making pickles). In contrast, Japan does not allow the use of iodized salt.
Ms. Ly Kim Chi, President of the Ho Chi Minh City Food and Foodstuff Association, also affirmed: “If the draft is followed, the Ministry of Health has implicitly deprived consumers of their right to choose. This is especially harmful to the health of people with excess iodine, hyperthyroidism, etc. Regarding the ability to compete in the domestic and export markets, this regulation increases production costs, darkens food color, and reduces the competitiveness of businesses.”
Mr. Nguyen Phuc Khoa, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vietnam Livestock Corporation (Vissan) added that if this regulation is passed, the company's production costs will have to increase by 5%/total product. More worryingly, it will reduce the competitiveness of the company's products by changing the taste of the products, especially products using organic colors. Actual surveys from the company show that Vietnamese people still use salt to season food instead of using other alternative products. Therefore, the addition of iodine as prescribed above is not appropriate.
“With this regulation, Vietnamese food cannot reach the world market. As for Phu Quoc Fish Sauce Association member enterprises, they cannot export their products to the European market because they do not comply with the actual production process that has been protected by Europe. In which, only “fish and salt grains” are allowed, no other substances are used,” emphasized Mr. Dang Thanh Tai, Vice President of Phu Quoc Fish Sauce Production Association.
Businesses deeply reduce their competitiveness because they have to split themselves?
Many businesses agree that if Decree 09 is applied, they will suffer enough "bitterness". Accordingly, although businesses have a modern automatic production line system, to ensure that cross-contamination of iodine is avoided, they are forced to invest in two production lines. Because businesses cannot use a common tank system and automatically supply raw materials for both products using added and unadded raw materials. Instead, businesses are forced to store unadded raw materials in separate tanks and directly supply raw materials manually. This increases operating time and reduces productivity.
“The company is currently exporting to more than 120 markets around the world. To ensure compliance with the regulations on iodine, iron, and zinc supplementation, the company must stop for 15-20 hours to clean the production line before producing products for the domestic market, causing costs, leading to uncompetitive selling prices in both the domestic and export markets, reducing revenue,” a representative of Vietnam Food Technology Joint Stock Company (Vifon) worried.
Ms. Vu Kim Hanh, President of the Association of High-Quality Vietnamese Goods Enterprises, raised the question: "On what basis did the Ministry of Health publish the list of 120 countries and territories that are required to add micronutrients to food? Besides, what is the reason for persisting in keeping this regulation for 8 years, despite many petitions and suggestions from businesses? Is it possible that the Ministry of Health has been persistently pushing consumers into the risk of developing hyperthyroidism or worsening the disease if they already have this disease? Or is the Ministry "forcing" consumers to switch to using imported goods because this group of goods does not have regulations on adding the micronutrient iodine?"
Also at the workshop, Mr. Nguyen Hoai Nam, Deputy General Secretary of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers, expressed his indignation that on May 15, 2018, the Government issued Resolution No. 19-2018/NQ-CP (Resolution 19) directing the Ministry of Health to study, amend and supplement Decree 09 in the direction of abolishing the regulation that "salt used in food processing must be fortified with iodine"; abolishing the regulation that "wheat flour used in food processing must be fortified with iron and zinc". Instead, only food processing enterprises should be encouraged to use it.
Along with that, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha also issued 2 documents directing the Ministry of Health to urgently amend Decree 09 according to the direction in Resolution 19. Most recently, at a workshop 3 months ago, with comments from businesses, the Ministry also acknowledged that the draft amendment to Decree 09 still retains these inappropriate regulations. Not only that, businesses have only received the draft content for about 2 days while the Ministry of Health requested to send comments before July 10.
It can be said that the addition of iodine, iron and zinc to food is necessary for public health. The problem is choosing a reasonable solution that does not affect product quality, business competitiveness and consumer choice.
“On the business side, we should apply solutions to encourage the creation of product types with added micronutrients for markets in need. The Ministry of Health should build a direction towards mandatory iodine supplementation for direct table salt, solid spices such as seasoning powder, broth powder...”, Mr. Dang Thanh Tai, Vice Chairman of Phu Quoc Fish Sauce Production Association suggested.
AI VAN
Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/6-hiep-hoi-doanh-nghiep-kien-nghi-bai-bo-quy-dinh-bo-sung-vi-chat-vao-thuc-pham-post749431.html
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