Behind the dumping and destruction of thousands of functional food boxes in Ho Chi Minh City

In the past 2 years, NPS has been trading in functional foods (FF) of MEDIUSA Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company and MEDIPHAR Joint Venture Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company. When the fake FFF production line of the above 2 companies was exposed, S. quickly hired people to destroy all the products.

Many health food products are discarded even though they are still within their expiration date.

Destroy counterfeit products

When people discovered a large amount of dietary supplements dumped along Nguyen Van Linh Street, the Economic Police Department, the Criminal Police Department of Ho Chi Minh City Police Department coordinated with Phong Phu Commune Police to immediately investigate.

The results recorded 5 locations with food supplement labeled boxes with a quantity of about 95 types, including more than 3,400 boxes.

Immediately afterwards, the task force traced the related subjects and identified the person who dumped the dietary supplements as NML. This person was hired to destroy and burn the above dietary supplements for a sum of 7 million VND.

Specifically, from May 28 to June 3, NPS sent trucks carrying 80 cartons containing boxes and 167 boxes of dietary supplements to L.'s house.

One of 5 locations where 3,400 boxes of dietary supplements were dumped at an empty lot along Nguyen Van Linh Street.

Police identified NPS (36 years old, residing in District 12), Director of Natural Care Green Health Company Limited, as the owner of the goods.

According to S., the above goods were purchased from MEDIUSA Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company and MEDIPHAR Joint Venture Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company, through VP Joint Venture Joint Stock Company (HCMC branch) from mid-2023 to present.

Total number of purchased products is about 150 types, equivalent to about 20 billion VND.

At the end of April 2025, through the press, S. learned that 2 sales companies had been prosecuted by the Ministry of Public Security for trading in fake dietary supplements. Fearful, S. recalled the products and destroyed them. The value of the destroyed shipment was about 500 million VND.

Currently, S. has also voluntarily handed over to the police more than 3,600 labeled boxes of more than 100 types of dietary supplements from MEDIUSA and MEDIPHAR. These goods were returned by the buyer and have not yet been destroyed.

From mid-2023 to present, NPS has purchased about 150 types of dietary supplement products from MEDIUSA and MEDIPHAR.

Which company is MEDIUSA, MEDIPHAR?

The discarded dietary supplement products clearly state the manufacturer's information as MEDIUSA Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company (Lot CN A5, Phu Nghia Industrial Park, Chuong My District, Hanoi ), MEDIUSA Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company (Dai Kim Ward, Hoang Mai District, Hanoi), and MEDIPHAR Joint Venture Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company (Phu Nghia Industrial Park, Chuong My District, Hanoi).

The above companies are part of the ecosystem of the fake dietary supplement production and trading ring led by Nguyen Nang Manh (Director of MegaPhaco Company, Chairman of the Board of Directors of MEDIUSA Company).

According to the investigation, since 2016, Nguyen Nang Manh and his accomplices established and operated many companies to legalize the production and trade of fake dietary supplements, from the stages of importing raw materials, production, packaging, and consumption.

With the cover of “imported from the US, Europe”, and anti-counterfeit stamps, in reality, the raw materials are mainly imported from China or bought illegally on the market. In terms of quality, many components only reach less than 30% of the declared quality.

The consumers this group targets are mainly the elderly and children.

At the investigation agency, the subjects confessed that the method of consumption was to directly meet with pharmaceutical representatives, pharmacies and pharmaceutical distribution companies in the province to offer and introduce products.

Part of the dietary supplement was burned and disposed of in an empty lot. Photo source: Provided by the police

The investigation also found that five officials from the Food Safety Department, Ministry of Health, accepted bribes to allow counterfeit products to enter the market. Among them was Mr. Nguyen Thanh Phong, former Director of the Food Safety Department.

The above 5 officers made mistakes in appraisal, post-inspection, and issued 4 food safety certificates meeting good manufacturing practice (GMP) requirements for 2 factories of MEDIPHAR and MEDIUSA companies ; and issued 207 certificates of acceptance of product declaration registration for a group of 9 companies of Nguyen Nang Manh.

The subjects also paid money to the inspection and appraisal team chaired by the Food Safety Department to have the number of errors recorded during the appraisal reduced, instructions on how to fix the errors, and time given to fix the errors.

TRANSPORTATION

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/phia-sau-vu-do-bo-tieu-huy-hang-ngan-hop-thuc-pham-chuc-nang-tai-tphcm-post798955.html