On the afternoon of February 4, at the regular Government press conference, Standing Deputy Minister of Health Vu Manh Ha provided information to the press related to ensuring food safety during the 2026 Lunar New Year.
Regarding food safety assurance during the Lunar New Year, Standing Deputy Minister of Health Vu Manh Ha said that the Lunar New Year and the festival season are the biggest times of consumption of food, medicine, cosmetics and health care products in the year.
This is also a period of potential risks of counterfeit goods, poor quality goods, trade fraud, false advertising, directly affecting people's health. Therefore, right from the end of 2025, the Ministry of Health has identified this as a key and urgent task and synchronously implemented many groups of solutions, closely coordinating with ministries, branches and localities.
The Ministry of Health has advised the Central Inter-sectoral Steering Committee on Food Safety to issue Plan No. 1941/KH-BCĐTƯATTP dated December 23, 2025, to deploy food safety assurance for the Binh Ngo Lunar New Year and Spring Festival 2026 nationwide, from December 25, 2025 to the end of March 25, 2026.
Accordingly, the Ministry of Health coordinates with relevant ministries to establish 5 central inter-sectoral inspection teams in 10 key provinces and cities; directing localities to strengthen inspections from provincial to commune levels, focusing on groups of foods that are consumed a lot and are at high risk such as meat and meat products, alcohol and beer, soft drinks, confectionery, vegetables and fruits, food additives and food service establishments.
Along with inspection and examination is widespread communication on mass media and the grassroots health system to raise awareness of people and businesses in ensuring food safety.
In particular, to tighten management from the root, the Ministry of Health has coordinated with ministries and sectors to develop and submit to the Government for promulgation Resolution No. 66. 13/2026/NQ-CP dated January 27, 2026 on the announcement and registration of food products and Decree No. 46/2026/ND-CP dated January 26, 2026 detailing the implementation of a number of articles and measures to organize and guide the implementation of the Food Safety Law. In which, many new regulations are added in the direction of strengthening both pre-inspection and post-inspection.
Accordingly, in the production stage, improve conditions for establishments producing medical nutritional foods, foods for special diets, supplements...
Tighten the announcement of application standards and registration of product announcements; require test sheets to be complete in both safety and quality indicators; supplement technical dossiers for groups of health protection foods, medical nutritional foods; strengthen state inspection of imported foods.
Strengthen the post-inspection stage, clearly stipulate planned inspections and unscheduled inspections; strengthen market surveillance sampling, especially for product groups for children, the elderly, and pregnant women; supplement the mechanism for revoking product declaration acceptance papers, temporarily suspending dossiers, and strictly handling violating establishments.
At the same time, strengthen the management of food advertising on e-commerce platforms and social networks; require the public disclosure of product legal documents; clearly stipulate the responsibilities of e-commerce platform owners; control food advertising activities of celebrities and influencers.
