Authorities inspect dairy products on the market. Photo: CQCN

According to information from the Department of Food Safety, Ministry of Health , in response to many recent cases of violating products discovered such as: SUPERGREENS GUMMIES (Kera Vegetable Candy) containing sorbitol violating advertising; large-scale production, trading and consumption of fake powdered milk and fake functional foods, causing public outrage..., implementing the direction of the Government, the Drafting Committee and Editorial Team of the Draft Decree amending Decree No. 15/2018/ND-CP of the Government on detailed regulations for the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Food Safety have agreed to add to the draft Decree the contents to ensure the requirements in the new situation.

Specifically, the Draft Decree amends and supplements the regulations on the responsibilities and tasks of the agency receiving self-declaration dossiers, giving opinions when receiving dossiers, posting dossiers on the electronic information page, developing and implementing a plan for post-checking dossiers; if violations are detected, samples will be taken to monitor the quality and safety of food products circulating on the market (Point b, Clause 4, Point d, Clause 28, Article 1 of the Draft Decree). Reason: Decree No. 15/2018/ND-CP does not have regulations on the management agency to control self-declaration dossiers, leading to many products that enterprises self-declared, self-classified products that were not true to the nature of the product, self-exaggerated product uses, and non-compliance with product quality. When inspections and checks were detected, the products had already been circulated and consumed.

The draft adds regulations that food supplements must register a product declaration (clauses 5, 6, 7, Article 1 of the Draft Decree). Reason: Food supplements (a subgroup of functional foods) are not clearly stated in Decree No. 15/2018/ND-CP, are not specified in the food groups that must register a declaration, food supplements belong to the group of pre-packaged processed foods and are self-declared. This leads to the situation where organizations and individuals declare the wrong product group, many health protection foods self-identify as food supplements and self-declare. In addition, because advertising content is not required to be registered with the competent authority, there is a situation where businesses exaggerate the features and uses of the product.

Regulations for health protection foods, medical nutritional foods, foods for special diets, supplementary foods, nutritional products for children up to 36 months old: Based on the management models of some countries in the world such as China, Korea, Japan, the United States, etc., regulations on product declaration registration dossiers are required 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 (Clause 6, 7, Article 1 of the Draft Decree). Reason: Decree No. 15/2018/ND-CP 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 enterprises take advantage of this policy to use many ingredients that have no features or uses in a health food product for the sole purpose of advertising the product without paying attention to the safety, quality, and actual uses of the product.

Supplementing the regulation that organizations and individuals must declare product quality indicators applied according to the provisions of Article 23 of the Law on Product and Goods Quality on declaring applicable standards (Clause 4, 6, 7, Article 1 of the Draft Decree). Reason: Decree No. 15/2018/ND-CP 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 and not complying with product quality as declared in the dossier.

Supplementing regulations on revoking the Certificate of food safety qualified facility, Certificate of advertising content, Certificate of product declaration registration and removing product information posted on the electronic information page of the competent state management agency receiving product declaration dossiers to enhance the strictness of food safety law enforcement (Clause 9, Article 1 of the Draft Decree). The content of this regulation aims to control and improve the quality after food product declaration, serving post-inspection work.

Supplementing the regulation on temporarily suspending the receipt of administrative procedure dossiers of organizations and individuals violating the provisions of the law on food safety until there is a decision to handle the violation by the competent authority or person and the organization or individual has completed the handling decision (Clause 6, 7, Article 1 of the Draft Decree). This regulation is to ensure strictness in the enforcement of the law on food safety.

Regulations requiring the application of Certificates of food safety qualified establishments meeting Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) or Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) or ISO 22000 Food Safety Management System or International Food Standards (IFS) or Global Standards for Food Safety (BRC) or Food Safety System Certification (FSSC 22000) or equivalent certification in production and business activities for establishments producing medical nutritional foods, foods for special diets, supplementary foods, nutritional products for children up to 36 months old to improve the production conditions of these food products (Clause 6, 7, Article 1 of the Draft Decree). Reason: According to the regulations of the European Union and some countries, food production facilities are required to comply with the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) system, in which, some countries stipulate that only competent state management agencies can issue HACCP certificates. Currently, in Vietnam, the above certificates are issued by a third party organization (this organization is designated by the Ministry of Science and Technology ).

To comply with international practices, the Law on Food Safety (amended) will supplement regulations on the authority of the agency that is granted a Certificate of food safety qualified facility that meets the requirements of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) or Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point System (HACCP) or ISO 22000 Food Safety Management System or International Food Standard (IFS) or Global Standard for Food Safety (BRC) or Food Safety System Certification (FSSC 22000) or equivalent certification.

However, while waiting for the Law to be amended, in order to improve the capacity of production facilities to improve product quality, the Ministry of Health proposes to add to the Draft Decree a regulation that facilities producing the following product groups: Medical nutritional foods, foods for special diets, supplementary foods, nutritional products for children up to 36 months of age must have a Certificate of food safety qualified facility that meets the requirements of the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) system or an equivalent certificate. At the same time, it is necessary to add regulations on the responsibility of the Ministry of Science and Technology in inspecting and supervising the third party organizations designated to issue the above certificates.

In particular, the Draft Amended Decree also adds provisions on post-inspection of food safety (based on the reference of the provisions of the US Food and Drug Administration - FDA). In particular, it specifies the development of plans, contents, frequency, planned post-inspections, unscheduled post-inspections and the role of management agencies in implementing post-inspection work; strengthens the role of testing facilities serving state management in proactively taking samples for market monitoring.

The Ministries of Health, Agriculture and Environment, Industry and Trade, Finance and Provincial People's Committees are responsible for completing the connection and sharing of data with the National Public Service Portal to handle administrative procedures, manage food safety, and unify food safety management from central to local levels to serve post-inspection, quality monitoring and product recall (Clause 29, Article 1 of the Draft Decree).

In addition, the Draft Decree amendment also supplements regulations for parties participating in product advertising, strengthens supervision of advertising on e-commerce platforms and social networks; inspects and supervises advertising business units, advertising carriers, and influencers conducting food advertising; develops a code of professional conduct in advertising activities; publicizes the relationship between influencers and advertising sponsors...

Specify the specific responsibilities of a number of relevant ministries and branches in food safety management, including the Ministries of Health; Industry and Trade; Agriculture and Environment; Finance; Science and Technology; Culture, Sports and Tourism; Public Security, and Provincial People's Committees in food safety management. Supplement regulations on transferring domestic consumption or changing the purpose of use for food products and ingredients...

According to baotintuc.vn

Source: https://huengaynay.vn/chinh-tri-xa-hoi/theo-dong-thoi-su/sua-nghi-dinh-15-sau-hang-hoat-vu-sua-gia-thuc-pham-chuc-nang-gia-155329.html