As easy as "starting a business" with functional foods

With high profits while capital is insignificant and does not require expertise, the business of functional foods (FF) is the choice of many people. Grasping this need, many groups on Facebook openly accept the processing of FFF with a commitment to full service, legal support, communication, and advertising.

Order anything!

In a group specializing in dietary supplements and cosmetics with more than 10,000 members on Facebook, we contacted a Facebook account named Y. with the need to order the production of bone and joint supplements. Y. introduced himself as a consultant of the "FDA, GMP international standard factory system" in Ho Chi Minh City, specializing in processing food and dietary supplements. We requested that the product must contain glucosamine combined with herbs, and the factory can handle the mixed ingredients at will. According to Y.'s advice, this product should be packaged in powder form with many flavors to better reach customers. The price ranges from 3,000 VND - 5,000 VND/package of finished powder.

In case the customer does not have a product formula, Y. will support consulting on exclusive formulas transferred from Japan and the US with a team of experienced doctors and pharmacists. More attractively, with processing orders over 100 million VND, the factory will take care of the entire product declaration dossier according to regulations. If the order has a lower value, the customer only needs to pay an additional 4-5 million VND for the product declaration dossier service. However, when we scheduled a site visit, Y. refused on the grounds that the factory was receiving a large order and was in the process of expanding the factory. Although it repeatedly affirmed that the factory was certified by the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) and GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices), Y. could not provide the certificate and promised to supplement it later.

A sample of dietary supplements manufactured by a factory is introduced to a customer by an account named Y. Photo: MINH KHUÊ

At another dietary supplement startup group, an account also takes care of the entire package of business registration procedures, product trademarks, and declaration documents for a cost of about 6 million VND. A series of accounts also publicly provide dietary supplements with countless designs, brands, and uses, from brain supplements to bone and joint supplements, from tablets to tea bags... A person named H. advertises a health food with liver detoxification effects with the ingredients sylimarin and artichoke extract, priced at 52,000 VND/box, ensuring full product declaration acceptance from the Ministry of Health . At the same time, H. advises customers that they can retail for about 200,000 VND/box to compensate for advertising costs, shipping, and e-commerce platform fees while still ensuring profits.

With the need to open a retail store selling dietary supplements, we easily connected with a person specializing in distributing health protection foods of a company in Vinh Phuc . In the list of more than 30 products this person provides, the price of each product is surprisingly cheap, ranging from 25,000 VND to about 50,000 VND/box of dietary supplements. What is surprising is that the retail price (publicly posted on the website) is many times higher than the price imported by the distributor. For example, the liver detoxification product is quoted at 29,000 VND/box and the retail price is 220,000 VND; the product of blood circulation in the vestibule is 82,000 VND/box and the retail price is 350,000 VND; stomach and duodenal gel is 25,000 VND/box and the retail price is 175,000 VND...

It is not known whether these foods have real functions or not, but consumers certainly have to spend a lot of money much higher than the real value of the product. Worryingly, with technology that covers everything from A to Z, who dares to guarantee the quality and safety of thousands of dietary supplements that have been and are openly circulating on the market?

Unclear origin and quality

According to the Vietnam Dietary Supplement Association, by 2025, the country will have more than 3,000 establishments producing and trading dietary supplements, with more than 12,000 products in circulation, of which more than 8,000 are domestically produced. However, the recent bust of fake dietary supplement production lines has revealed a fact: many products are labeled as imported but are produced in factories... in the suburbs. Easy production and processing, all-inclusive documents at low prices, this may be part of the reason why the dietary supplement market is chaotic.

In addition, taking advantage of people's gullibility and lack of knowledge, many dietary supplement businesses spend a lot of money on advertising to exaggerate their effects. Not only are they widely introduced and sold on social networks, dietary supplements are also openly traded on many e-commerce platforms even though they do not have a certificate of product declaration registration as prescribed.

Most recently, the Department of Food Safety, Ministry of Health has requested two e-commerce platforms Shopee and Lazada to stop trading and remove information about products such as Omega 3-6-9 1600mg, Natto Kinase 4000fu, Estroven - Complete Multi - Sympton, Kirkland Glucosamine 1500mg & Chondroitin 1200mg; Glucosamine 1500mg with MSM 1500mg due to the above violations. At the same time, it is necessary to review the business and electronic transactions of dietary supplement products.

Associate Professor Pham Khanh Phong Lan, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Food Safety, commented that whether functional food products are self-declared or declared, they are only implemented on paper, and product quality will still not be guaranteed if post-inspection is not effective and substantial. However, to do post-inspection well, it is necessary to change inspection and examination methods, increase human resources, handling authority, and inspection costs. Ms. Phong Lan said that with the current situation of the market, legal basis, management agencies, and public awareness, counterfeit goods (especially fake milk and fake functional foods) are still a big problem in the immediate future.

“Tackling counterfeit goods, especially fake food, is a legitimate social requirement that requires time and a management system that is in dire need of change,” said Ms. Phong Lan.

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Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/de-nhu-khoi-nghiep-voi-thuc-pham-chuc-nang-post798497.html