The Ministry of Health is soliciting public opinions on the draft Decree amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree 15/2018/ND-CP of the Government detailing the implementation of a number of Articles of the Law on Food Safety.
The draft focuses on three major groups of contents: Reforming administrative procedures, decentralizing management and strengthening post-inspections to improve food quality.
Reform administrative procedures to reduce the burden of procedures for businesses, in line with the trend of digital transformation and international integration:
• Remove the requirement for translation and notarization of all English documents when announcing the product.
• Allow the use of GMP-standard manufacturing form instead of having to send samples to the designated testing room.
• Clearly regulate the time for processing product declaration documents, helping businesses be proactive in production and business.
• Simplify advertising records for health protection foods and nutritional foods.
• Remove the GMP certificate from the registration for declaration of domestically produced health protection foods, due to complicated procedures.
• Relax procedures for importing charity aid foods, exempt product declaration but still have to check quality.
• Building a unified management software for food safety administrative procedures from the central to local levels.
• Reduced the composition of the dossier for granting a certificate of food safety eligibility, appointing a testing facility.
Decentralization, delegation of authority in licensing and management to increase proactiveness for localities and reduce the burden on central agencies:
• Decentralization to localities for granting free circulation certificates for exported foods (except for health protection foods).
• Decentralization of management of tools and packaging that come into direct contact with food to localities.
Strengthening post-inspection and control of food quality
Faced with the situation of a strong food market with more than 84,000 conventional food products and more than 54,500 functional food products, the draft Decree provides many regulations to control more closely:
• The regulation stipulates that only new production facilities or product owners are allowed to announce the product.
• Add explanations for product ingredients to the published dossier to prevent mixing many unnecessary substances, which pose potential health risks.
• Tighten the change of product content after announcement, it is mandatory to re-ally announce if there are changes in ingredients, uses, contents, production facilities, etc.
• Regulations on revoking the advertising license for products that have not been in circulation for 3 years.
• Require businesses to establish and store product information records (Product Information file - PIF), similar to the regulations for cosmetics. This dossier contains full information about products and is very important for controlling safety and quality from the product research and development stage, monitoring stability to calculate the expiration date, controlling quality throughout the entire production process (from input materials, finished products, finished products) and when circulating on the market.
• Submit standards and testing methods when announcing products for post-inspection service.
• Increase sanctions for violations (regulations on revocation and stopping receipt of product declaration registration certificates, certificates of food advertising content, revocation of food safety qualification certificates), supplement conditions and procedures for appointing testing facilities.
In addition to the contents proposed by the Ministry of Health, the Government Inspectorate, in Conclusion No. 2555/KL-TTCP dated December 6, 2024, also recommended adding product labeling samples and manufacturer standards to the self-declaration and product registration dossier, to increase transparency and convenience for post-inspection work.
These amendments and supplements are expected to create an open legal corridor, in line with international reality and practices, while enhancing business responsibility, strengthening food quality management, and protecting consumer health.
The Decree amending and supplementing Decree No. 15/2018/ND-CP issued under streamlined procedures will contribute to the early realization of these innovations in practice, meeting the development requirements of the food industry and the expectations of businesses and people.
