The Food Safety Department (Ministry of Health) has issued information recommending that people pay attention to a number of points before buying and using health protection foods.
Accordingly, health protection foods are products used to supplement the daily diet to maintain, enhance, and improve the functions of the human body, reducing the risk of disease. Health protection foods are not drugs, and do not replace medicine. In case of illness, people need to go to medical facilities for timely examination and treatment.
The Department emphasized: Health protection foods must be granted a Certificate of Receipt for registration of the product declaration by the Department of Food Safety to be circulating on the market.
All information about health protection food products that are granted a Certificate of Receipt of Product Declaration and are granted a Certificate of advertising content is made public on the pages https://vfa.gov.vn/, https://dichvucong.moh.gov.vn/ and https://congkhaiyte.moh.gov.vn/?page=Project.MedicalPrice.Home.MedicalPrice.Announcement list.#module9.
People can look it up before deciding to buy a product, the Food Safety Department emphasized.
The Food Safety Department also recommends that people should carefully check product information, product labels or secondary labels (for imported products) to ensure adequate information. Specifically include:
- Product name.
- Production date, expiration date.
- Ingredients, qualitative ingredients.
- Quantization.
- Instructions for use, preservation instructions: Uses, subjects of use, how to use.
- Risk recommendations (if any).
- Record the phrase: "Health protection foods".
- Record the phrase: "This food is not a medicine, it does not replace medicine".
- Receipt number for product declaration registration, advertising content confirmation number (if any).
- Name, address of the responsible trader and the product manufacturing facility.
Regarding signs of advertising violations of regulations, the Food Safety Department guides consumers when watching advertisements on social networks to pay attention to all health protection foods that cannot replace medicine.
Advertisements such as drinking protective foods will then recover from the disease; or having images of doctors and medical staff introducing the product, without the words: "This food is not a medicine and does not replace medicine" are advertising content that violates the law. People absolutely do not listen to advertisements to buy and use.
