Ministry of Health proposes to inspect and supervise celebrity product advertising

(Dan Tri) - In order to ensure product quality, the Ministry of Health proposed many new points such as regulations on the responsibility of the agency receiving self-declaration dossiers, registration dossiers, and responsibilities of parties participating in advertising...

Specific regulations on post-audit and responsibilities of parties participating in advertising

The Ministry of Health has just issued a document announcing the content of the draft Decree amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 15/2018.

Accordingly, a series of recent violations such as Kera vegetable candy containing sorbitol violating advertising; large-scale production, trade and consumption of fake milk powder and fake functional foods, causing public outrage.

The Ministry of Health has consulted the management experience of the United States, Japan, Australia, Canada, Korea, China, etc., thereby proposing solutions to immediately resolve limitations and shortcomings related to self-declaration, registration of product declarations, advertising, and post-inspection in accordance with reality and management requirements in the new situation.

A series of recent violations such as Kera candy, fake milk, and fake functional foods have caused public outrage (Screenshot).

Regarding the issue of post-inspection of food safety, the draft proposes specific regulations on planning, content, frequency, planned post-inspection cases, unscheduled post-inspection cases, and the role of management agencies in implementing post-inspection work.

The Ministry of Health also proposed to strengthen the supervision of advertising on e-commerce platforms and social networks; inspect and supervise business units issuing advertisements, advertising carriers, and influencers carrying out food advertising; develop a code of professional conduct in advertising activities...

Clearly define the responsibilities of the agency receiving the declaration dossier

Specifically, the draft Decree amending Decree No. 15 stipulates the responsibilities and tasks of the agency receiving self-declaration dossiers and implementing the plan for post-auditing dossiers. If violations are detected, samples will be taken to monitor the quality and safety of food products circulating on the market.

Food supplements must register their product declaration. The reason is that food supplements (a subgroup of functional foods) are not clearly stated in Decree No. 15/2018, are not regulated in the food groups that must register their declaration, and food supplements belong to the group of pre-packaged processed foods and are self-declared.

This leads to organizations and individuals declaring the wrong product groups, many health protection foods self-identify as dietary supplements and self-declare.

In addition, because advertising content is not required to be registered with the competent authority, businesses often exaggerate product features and uses.

In addition, for the group of health protection foods, medical nutritional foods, foods for special diets, supplementary foods, nutritional products for children over 36 months old, the Ministry of Health proposes to regulate the product declaration registration dossier.

This is to control the coordination of ingredients, safety and quality indicators, product features and uses from product research and development to registration before circulation on the market.

The reason is that Decree No. 15/2018 stipulates that enterprises commit to fully comply with legal regulations on food safety and are fully responsible for the legality of the declaration dossier and the quality and food safety of the declared products.

Therefore, the simplified registration dossier aims to enhance the responsibility of enterprises in complying with the law.

However, some businesses take advantage of this policy to use many ingredients that have no features or uses in a health food product just for the purpose of advertising the product without paying attention to the safety, quality, and actual uses of the product.

Notably, the draft also stipulates that organizations and individuals must publish product quality indicators applied according to regulations.

The reason is that Decree No. 15/2018 stipulates that the test report in the registration dossier for the declaration must only test safety indicators but not quality indicators, leading to businesses taking advantage of this and not complying with product quality as declared in the dossier.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/suc-khoe/bo-y-te-de-xuat-kiem-tra-giam-sat-viec-nguoi-noi-tieng-quang-cao-san-pham-20250703114934195.htm