Director Chu Quoc Thinh of the Food Safety Administration (VFA-Ministry of Health) explained notable new points of the upcoming amended Law on Food Safety, which firmly shifts toward risk-based management and meticulous control throughout the supply chain.
The remarkably rapid evolution of e-commerce and sprawling supply chains perpetually imposes demands to fundamentally overhaul how food safety (FS) is managed. Therefore, the draft Law on FS (amended) is essentially constructed to perfect legal frameworks, decisively shifting from pre-checks to risk-based management, bolstering post-audits, plus vigorously applying digital data.
One profoundly vital change is managing FS based entirely on risk control across the entire supply chain, traversing from initial agricultural production stages all the way to preliminary processing, distribution, and market circulation.
The draft meticulously institutionalizes this model through robust risk analysis tools. These results reportedly serve as the concrete basis adjusting appropriate management measures, executing post-audits, enforcing traceability. The management methodology is forcefully shifted from pre-checks to post-audits, drastically enhancing the management of e-commerce, food delivery for online orders, food advertising, and comprehensive digital transformation.
Mentioning the novel points that the draft law contains to aid consumers in recognizing, verifying, and tracing food origins within the cyber environment, Director Chu Quoc Thinh shared that the new regulations relentlessly steer toward elevating transparency in food production, business, and circulation, especially across this new environment.
Regarding e-commerce, the administrators of e-commerce platforms, social networks, and establishments for online-order food delivery bear absolute responsibility in controlling FS. The platforms are strictly mandated to construct a censorship mechanism, demanding sellers provide all relevant legal documents prior to posting products.
Online-order food delivery and business establishments must publicly disclose their FS commitments, business licenses, and visual images of their business locations; platforms operating these services must invariably establish a dedicated channel to receive complaints regarding signs of FS non-compliance. For health protection foods, products falling under the group requiring a product declaration registration, manufacturing establishments must rigorously meet Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) requirements.
As to the regulations on accelerating digitization and constructing an interconnected FS data system robustly support management efforts and everyday consumers, the Director informed that FS management will progressively rely heavily on digital data and an interconnected national information system bridging the Central to local levels.
It’ll encapsulate comprehensive data on production facilities, businesses, and the entire food lifecycle. The system seamlessly integrates inspection, examination, and supervision results alongside food poisoning data, seamlessly connecting with specialized databases per management requirements. The data accurately serves risk analysis, traceability, and management decentralization.
Enterprises must clearly publish their product declaration registration numbers directly on labels and packaging; supply chain management is heavily encouraged via codes, barcodes, and digital platforms. The interconnected data essentially empowers consumers to verify information and trace product origins.
Regarding the process transitioning from pre-checks to post-audits and renovating product declaration management to reduce procedures while guaranteeing food safety, Director Chu Quoc Thinh commented that it represents a profound methodological reform, basically based on risk analysis alongside compliance history.
The draft explicitly stipulates three management forms regarding product declarations, namely product declaration registration, product standard declaration, and outright exemption for certain specific cases according to regulations.
The groups mandated to register product declarations are those with products boasting published health recommendations, items tailored for vulnerable demographics like the elderly or pregnant women, foods boasting effects maintaining bodily functions while mitigating disease risks, alongside dietary adjustment products utilized under strict medical supervision.
Other product groups not subject to registration will seamlessly execute product standard declarations or fall under exemptions. Thus, mandatory registration scope is drastically narrowed. These specific groups are cleared for circulation immediately after competent agencies receive dossiers; they’ll undeniably undergo strict post-audits based on risk analysis.
For establishments already possessing certifications like HACCP or ISO 22000, the draft stipulates official recognition so they aren’t forced to endure certificate reissuance; simultaneously, they enjoy reduced inspection methodologies.
Furthermore, the draft meticulously stipulates detailed post-audit regulations alongside violation handling measures, encompassing safety certificate revocation.
The Director then admitted that when the new regulations are promulgated, enterprises and citizens actually need a grace adaptation timeframe so their production and business operations aren’t disastrously disrupted. The draft proposes transitional clauses, suggesting a timeframe stretching from 24 to 36 months to guarantee that production and business operations aren’t fractured, simultaneously forging optimal conditions to execute the new requirements.
Besides that, pivoting to management based strictly on risk analysis, amplifying post-audits, digitizing data, and slashing utterly unnecessary procedures fundamentally aim to elevate FS management efficiency, whilst concurrently forging a remarkably transparent, highly favorable environment for enterprises to seamlessly comply with the law.
In reality, falsely advertising the miraculous effects of health protection foods, especially on livestreams, causing massive misunderstandings that they’re medicine, remains notoriously common. To curtail this, the draft proposes stringent solutions.
Enterprises registering declarations bear absolute responsibility for their dossiers’ accuracy. They must flawlessly execute recalls if issues arise, plus their advertising must perfectly align with agency-confirmed content. Should a registration certificate be revoked, enterprises must immediately halt all promotions.
Furthermore, advertisers are strictly forbidden from utilizing the images, uniforms, or endorsements of medical personnel, patients, or influential figures to deceitfully misrepresent a product’s features. All publicized uses must be solidly backed by irrefutable scientific evidence.
Finally, sellers peddling on e-commerce platforms must precisely provide consumers with comprehensive information regarding registration certificates, safety confirmations, alongside stringent storage conditions.
