Tighten management of functional foods

Functional foods directly affect public health, so strict management measures are needed to protect consumers from quality and safety risks.

Handling violations

Recently, the Ministry of Health has conducted and directed localities to inspect, examine, and post-inspecte establishments producing and trading health protection food products. This agency has handled 126 violations, with a total fine of more than 16.8 billion VND. Localities have inspected 941,836 establishments, of which 85,551 establishments violated, and fined 20,881 establishments, with a total fine of more than 123 billion VND.

The main violations are producing fake functional foods; importing fake, poor quality functional foods into Vietnam, then changing the packaging, labels... and selling them; producing functional foods containing banned substances; advertising functional foods with false information, causing confusion for consumers; using images, equipment, costumes, names, correspondence of medical units, facilities, doctors, pharmacists, medical staff, thank you letters from patients, articles by doctors, pharmacists, medical staff to advertise functional foods...

Recognizing the limitations and shortcomings in the current management of functional foods, Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan said that the management of functional food advertising activities is facing many difficulties due to the development of online advertising, telephone sales consulting, etc. The management shift from pre-control to post-control creates favorable conditions for businesses to self-declare their supplementary food products and produce and trade immediately after self-declaration, but a number of businesses have taken advantage of this mechanism to implement improperly, some organizations and individuals, for profit, disregard the law, health and life of the community.

Legal perfection

To effectively manage functional foods, according to experts, the first priority is to build and perfect the legal system. Accordingly, there needs to be detailed regulations on the definition, quality standards, ingredients, production instructions and marketing of these products. Regulations must clearly distinguish between functional foods and drugs, avoiding confusion, leading to abuse or misuse.

Along with that, there must be a mechanism to check the quality of products before selling them on the market; requiring functional food manufacturers to provide full information about ingredients, usage and side effects on product packaging. The marketing of functional foods needs to be closely monitored to avoid misleading information about the product's uses.

In particular, there must be strict penalties for violations such as manufacturing, distributing, and marketing products of unknown origin, poor quality, or providing false information about their uses.

An important solution for effective management of functional foods is to apply information technology to monitoring and inspection; using management software and database systems to track the origin, quality and status of each product batch to improve management efficiency. Technology can also help monitor the implementation of regulations related to the marketing and advertising of functional foods.

In addition, raising consumer awareness about the safety of using functional foods is also very important. Authorities need to regularly organize propaganda programs on how to choose, use and preserve functional foods effectively and safely.

The management of dietary supplements requires close coordination between authorities, manufacturers and consumers. With clear legal measures, product quality control, marketing supervision, public education and strict penalties, we can minimize the risks associated with the use of dietary supplements and effectively protect public health.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/siet-quan-ly-thuc-pham-chuc-nang-d232713.html