Fake functional foods surrounded
Recently, the Department of Investigation Police on Corruption, Economic Crimes, and Smuggling - Ministry of Public Security continued to prosecute another case of production and trading of counterfeit food on a very large scale when the amount of functional food seized reached over 100 tons.
Through investigation, the authorities determined that the subjects forged more than 900 health protection food labels, targeting the elderly, children and pregnant women. Under the name of a legitimate company, they publish imported raw materials from the US and Europe, but in reality, most of the raw materials are smuggled from China.
To create a legal cover, the subjects set up a chain of 6 companies: From importing raw materials, manufacturing, distributing to packaging. Thanks to that, they easily export fake functional foods to the whole country.
The marketing methods of this line are also very methodical. The subjects directly approached pharmacists, pharmacies and pharmaceutical companies in the provinces to recommend the product.
Khuc Minh Vu - Director of Vietnam - Germany Joint Venture Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company - confessed: "The process took many years to get a system like now".
The Ministry of Public Security has also just identified two products BABY SHARK and Medi Kid Calcium K2 of Herbitech Technology Company Limited (Soc Son, Hanoi) as fake health protection foods. This company, directed by Pham Vu Khiem, has produced more than 200 products worth hundreds of billions of VND, using fake test results to legalize quality.
The product is advertised as being imported from France, Germany, and the US, but in reality, it is incorrect. Khiem confessed that he had edited the test results from failing. This group also colluded with testing units to forge or edit the results.
Difficulty managing functional foods
According to the Vietnam authorities, about 80% of advertisements in the field of disease prevention and treatment support on social networks, e-commerce platforms, etc. that are currently causing frustration are the disguise of functional foods.
The Food Safety Department (Ministry of Health) said that in 2024, it inspected 66 functional food establishments and fined 21 establishments with a total fine of more than 12.2 billion VND.The main violations are false advertising, labels, substandard quality, and product announcement in violation of regulations.Some serious cases have been transferred to the police for handling.
Director of the Department of Food Safety, Dr. Tran Viet Nga, said that violations in functional food advertising are a burning issue. The situation of exaggerating public services and false advertising, especially through cross-border social networks, makes it difficult to control and handle. Many establishments have not registered and have not announced their products but are still advertising and distributing, losing consumer confidence.
The cases of fake functional foods discovered all show that businesses have taken advantage of loopholes from the mechanism of self-declaration of quality to bring poor quality, counterfeit products to the market, causing serious risks to consumers.
According to Decree 15/2018/ND-CP, as long as it meets safety criteria, it is allowed to self-declare the product, regardless of actual quality. After 7 years, this mechanism has revealed many loopholes, causing poor quality products to circulate widely, causing difficulties for post-inspection. Some businesses take advantage of this to make false publications or not submit documents, causing harm to consumers.
Dr. Tran Viet Nga admitted that post-inspections are still limited due to lack of human resources, equipment, and funding, while the number of products is increasing and diversifying.
According to pharmaceutical expert Nguyen Xuan Hoang - Vice President of the Vietnam Functional Food Association, it is necessary to force businesses to announce quality standards along with testing methods to distinguish between real and fake units. He proposed amending Decree 15 in the direction: Even if self-published, enterprises must submit a testing method for periodic inspection and detection of violations. While waiting for the decree to be amended, he proposed to immediately adjust the circular to strengthen management, prevent counterfeit products and protect people's health.
