Doctors, pharmacists, and medical staff advertising dietary supplements is a violation of the law.

People need to be alert when buying and using functional foods. Illustration photo: Internet

The document clearly states that currently, there is a situation where some doctors, pharmacists, and medical staff participate in advertising foods and functional foods, causing confusion for users.

Clause 2, Article 27 of Decree 15/2018/ND-CP dated February 2, 2018 of the Government detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Food Safety stipulates: "Do not use images, equipment, costumes, names, correspondence of medical units, facilities, doctors, pharmacists, medical staff, thank you letters from patients, articles of doctors, pharmacists, medical staff to advertise food".

Thus, the participation of some doctors, pharmacists, and medical staff in advertising food and functional foods is a violation of the law.

Implementing Directive No. 17/CT-TTg dated May 9, 2017 of the Prime Minister on improving the effectiveness and efficiency of state management and creating a strong change in food advertising activities, limiting excessive advertising, advertising without content assessment, providing false information about food products to consumers, the Ministry of Health requests hospitals under the Ministry of Health; institutes under the Ministry of Health; medical and pharmaceutical universities and colleges under the Ministry of Health; associations and unions related to food; Vietnam Medical Association to notify all cadres, civil servants, public employees, and workers (including workers of the unit who have retired) about the above situation. At the same time, review, inspect, handle according to authority or recommend competent authorities to handle if there are violations.

In fact, recently on social networking sites, there have appeared many images of people claiming to be doctors, traditional healers, and retired doctors advertising medicines and functional foods to increase people's trust.

The Ministry of Health recommends that consumers should be wary of clips introducing doctors and traditional healers to give advice on diseases and products to treat diseases, and clips introducing former patients and those who have used functional foods/health protection products and have recovered from diseases and can recover from diseases.

Regarding this issue, at the 8th Session of the 15th National Assembly held at the end of last year, Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan "took the floor" to answer many questions from delegates related to the issue of functional foods.

Minister Dao Hong Lan emphasized that people need to carefully read the instructions for using functional foods because they are not drugs and cannot replace medicine. It is necessary to carefully read the information on the indications and contraindications of the food. When viewing advertisements online, consumers need to pay attention. If the advertiser says that drinking this food will cure the disease or that this product is better than other products, or if there are images of doctors or nurses advertising, it is a violation. In particular, if any food does not have the words "This food is not a medicine and cannot replace medicine" written on it, it is also a violation of the law.

Hanh Dung

Source: https://baodongnai.com.vn/tin-moi/202504/bac-si-duoc-si-nhan-vien-y-te-quang-cao-thuc-pham-chuc-nang-la-vi-pham-phap-luat-56b1640/