Acting Director of the Department of Food Safety (Ministry of Health) Chu Quoc Thinh said that in the first 9 months of 2025, the Department has stepped up institutional improvement, advised the Ministry of Health to issue a Circular and continue to complete the draft Law on Food Safety (amended), Decree replacing Decree 15/2018/ND-CP; Resolution on food product registration and declaration; and Decree amending Decree 115/2018/ND-CP on administrative sanctions in the field of food safety.
The Department also advised on the issuance of 65 Vietnamese Standards related to health protection foods, additives, flavorings, micronutrients and packaging in direct contact with food; at the same time, issued 23 documents directing localities in inspection and handling of violations. In the field of functional foods alone, 18 establishments have been fined nearly 1.4 billion VND.
In addition, quality testing, poison prevention, and disease monitoring through food continue to be tightened; communication to raise public awareness is promoted, contributing to reducing the risk of food insecurity early and from afar.
However, the implementation of the law still faces many difficulties. The lack of specialized human resources leads to delays in processing records and supervision. Violations of health food advertising are still popular on social networks, multi-level sales and e-commerce. Worryingly, there has recently been a situation of forgery of the Department's product declaration registration receipt to put goods on the online platform, posing a great risk to the health of consumers.
According to the Department's leaders, in the fourth quarter of 2025, the industry will focus on perfecting institutions, handling backlogs, building a database for management and resolutely handling illegal advertising for health protection foods. The Department is also advising on perfecting the organizational structure and adding personnel to meet increasingly high management requirements.
Deputy Minister of Health Do Xuan Tuyen said that he has requested the Food Safety Department to speed up the completion of the Decree amending Decree 115/2018/ND-CP, in which it studies increasing sanctions to be effective in deterring violations. At the same time, it is necessary to promptly summarize the annual work of the Central Interdisciplinary Steering Committee on Food Safety and develop a plan for 2026 with specific instructions for each stage.
The Deputy Minister emphasized the need to strengthen post-inspections and closely coordinate with localities to strictly handle the production and trading of counterfeit, poor quality goods and trade fraud related to food. The inspection and handling of violations must be consistent throughout the industry, not leaving the subjects unknown.
At the same time, the industry needs to promote digital transformation, apply technology in managing and handling administrative procedures; proactively receive and promptly respond to people's opinions; strongly innovate communication activities, publicize violations to increase deterrence and ensure a safe food environment for the community.
Currently, the Ministry of Health is urgently completing the Draft Decree to replace Decree 15/2018/ND-CP in the direction of strongly reforming administrative procedures. Deputy Minister Do Xuan Tuyen requested to continue to simplify the process, resolutely not to issue "sub-licenses", and at the same time increase decentralization to localities in management.
The new draft also adds regulations to tighten management from production to product circulation; procedures for announcing applied standards, product announcements; management of food use conversion; advertising control, especially in the online environment; at the same time, clarifying the responsibilities of affected individuals when participating in product promotion.
