Fake functional foods are sold everywhere, with exaggerated effects.
Báo Thanh niên•12/11/2024
Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan presented the difficulties and solutions to prevent fake and counterfeit functional foods from being sold widely on the market.
On the afternoon of November 11, at the question-and-answer session with the Minister of Health, delegate Duong Tan Quan (Ba Ria - Vung Tau delegation) mentioned the situation of poor quality functional foods and cosmetics being advertised and sold widely on the market.
"Circumventing the law" to sell fake products, exaggerating their effects
Mr. Quan asked the Minister of Health to inform him of any plans to comprehensively monitor from production to distribution, in order to ensure quality and prevent violations in the field of functional foods and cosmetics.
Delegate Duong Tan Quan, Ba Ria - Vung Tau delegation
PHOTO: GIA HAN
Responding to questions, Minister Dao Hong Lan said that the management of pharmaceutical products currently has the Pharmaceutical Law, for cosmetics there is Circular No. 43/2014 of the Ministry of Health, and for functional foods there is the Food Safety Law. "The regulations are very complete to strengthen the management of pharmaceuticals, cosmetics as well as functional foods," Ms. Lan affirmed. However, the head of the Ministry of Health admitted that there are still cases of circumventing the law to trade in fake products or exaggerate their effects, even showing signs of defrauding consumers. To prevent the above story, Ms. Lan said that the Ministry of Health will strictly implement legal regulations, including reviewing to see if there is anything that does not meet practical requirements in order to promptly adjust. Currently, the two drafts of the revised Pharmaceutical Law and the revised Food Safety Law are both in the construction stage. "We hope that in early 2025, these draft laws will be submitted to the Government for comments and finalization and submitted to the National Assembly," the Minister of Health informed. Regarding cosmetics, Minister Dao Hong Lan said that the Ministry of Health is "upgrading" from a circular to a decree, and at the same time transferring it to the Ministry of Justice for appraisal. The new regulations will contribute to enhancing the effectiveness of management in this field. In addition, the Ministry of Health will coordinate with the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the National Steering Committee 389, and the Ministry of Information and Communications in managing sales websites; coordinate with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to find solutions to rectify the propaganda, advertising or sale of products that do not meet requirements.
"Fined 11 billion but until now have not collected a single penny"
After the Minister of Health answered the question of delegate Duong Tan Quan, delegate Nguyen Thi Xuan (Dak Lak delegation) continued to mention the shortcomings of functional foods. According to Ms. Xuan, the Ministry of Health assessed that the legal system for managing functional foods is relatively consistent, meeting management requirements, but functional foods are still flooding the market with fake, counterfeit, poor quality goods, even containing banned substances. This makes voters extremely worried and upset. Ms. Xuan asked Minister Dao Hong Lan to "point out the loopholes and find fundamental solutions".
Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan
PHOTO: GIA HAN
Responding to the delegates, the Minister of Health reaffirmed that the current legal system for managing functional foods is "basically adequate". For administrative sanctions, the fine can be up to 7 times the value of the violating goods; for criminal sanctions, the highest penalty can be up to 20 years in prison. The sanctions as mentioned, according to Ms. Lan's assessment, are "very strong". However, stemming from the desire for profit along with the lack of understanding of consumers, many subjects still ignore violations in the production and trade of functional foods. Notably, Ms. Lan shared about the difficulties in handling violations. Typically, some websites located abroad, Vietnamese authorities sent notices to coordinate but it was very difficult to handle, even "their information technology is more modern, so accessing and finding out the origin is very difficult". Or in the case of a business being fined up to 11 billion VND, "but up to this point, no money has been collected", the Ministry of Health had to propose applying exit ban measures to implement further measures. Ms. Lan hopes for coordination from relevant law enforcement agencies to strictly handle businesses with violations, to set an example for other cases.
Post information for public monitoring
Ms. Lan said that if functional foods are produced well, this will be an advantage for Vietnam to export. In fact, "we have exported to more than 30 countries in the world, including many foods such as vitamins". According to regulations, to be able to produce functional foods, the mandatory condition is to fully meet the conditions and standards of good manufacturing practices. "Vietnam is the first country in ASEAN to apply this standard", Ms. Lan said. According to the head of the Ministry of Health, previously Vietnam had about 1,000 functional food production facilities, after applying the above standards, there were only 201 facilities left. Currently, the Department of Food Safety (Ministry of Health) has a website, all businesses that are granted certificates of eligibility to produce functional foods are posted here, so that other businesses and consumers can look up and monitor.
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