Losing orders, losing market just because of micronutrients

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Representatives of Acecook Company mentioned a lot of difficulties when implementing regulations on fortification of food with micronutrients. Photo: N.Hien

On 25th June 2018, the Food and Foodstuff Association of Ho Chi Minh City (FFA) cooperated with Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) and Phu Quoc Fish Sauce Association to organize a seminar "information exchange and impact assessment of addition of micronutrients to food processing”

According to the Decree No. 09/016 / ND-CP of the Government dated 28/1/2016, salt directly used in serving meals, or salt used for food processing must be supplemented with iodine, and wheat flour used for food processing must be supplemented with iron and zinc. However, the implementation of this regulation has caused many difficulties for businesses.

Dr. Vu The Thanh, an independent consultant, member of the Scientific Advisory Council under the HCM City Food Safety Management Board, said that iodine is sublimated and easy to interact with other ingredients in food and changed with temperature. Therefore, the addition of iodine to the food before processing is not effective, because during the processing, the final product no longer contains iodine, but increases the cost and price of the product.

Representatives from Acecook Vietnam Joint Stock Company said that when the iron and zinc are added to wheat powder, it makes wheat power colour duller than normal and look mouldy. Moreover, the toughness and crispiness of the noodles are also affected. This will reduce the competitiveness of the product compared to other products without micronutrients. With the regulation on addition of iodine, Acecook products are instant noodles which must go through a frying process, so after being fired at 150-160 degrees Celsius, the finished product no longer contains iodine.

At the seminar, the representatives from Acecook raised a lot of difficulties that their company encounters when implementing regulations on the addition of micronutrients to the product. Accordingly, Acecook's products are currently exported to about 40 countries around the world. Many countries ban the addition of iron and zinc to products. Therefore, the company must produce special products without micronutrients for export.

When the automatic flour feeding system is used to produce noodles with micronutrients, the feeding of wheat flour to the mixer to produce the product without micronutrients has to be manually performed, causing many difficulties, requiring a lot of work and time causing low productivity.

In addition, due to the automatic production line being invested for use in both domestic and export markets, when implementing Decree 09, after the production of noodle products containing wheat power with iron and zinc, the company must clean the production line before the production of exports to countries banning the addition of iron and zinc to wheat so as prevent cross-contamination. The cleaning of the entire production line significantly reduces the productivity and increases costs, because it takes a lot of time to stop production for cleaning, as well as labour costs and loss of materials.

"If they want to continue exporting to countries banning the addition of iron and zinc, the company will have to invest in a specific production system for export, even building new plants, leading to huge investment costs, and unreasonable in terms of business, it can be said to be impossible," Acecook’s representative said.

Mrs. Huynh Kim Chi, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vietnam Flour Corporation shared that most foreigners do not accept products made from wheat flour supplemented with iron and zinc, and this is seriously affecting the sales and profits of the company. The company cannot produce products meeting the State regulations on addition of iron and zinc and products meeting the demand of foreign importers at the same time. The separation of production process reduces production capacity, increases costs, reduces competitiveness of domestic products as well as export of the company, significantly reduces market, and market share of the company.

Mr. Lam Ba Nhi, Director of Quality Management, Vissan Company also said, Vissan has implemented the use of iodized salt for food processing. However, the products are processed at high temperature, so the finished products no longer contain iodine. "Therefore, the application of Decree 09 does not meet the expectation of the Government on the addition of micronutrients for the people, but wastes money for businesses," said Nhi.

Ms. Ho Kim Lien, Chairman of Phu Quoc Fish Sauce Association also raised a problem that "Currently, Phu Quoc fish sauce is being protected by Europe for production process. The addition of iodine will affect the quality, color and taste of fish sauce. If Decree 09 is implemented, How will the protected production process be? "

Mrs. Ly Kim Chi, Chairman of FFA said that the FFA and the Business Line Association has repeatedly petitioned this content in writing and expressed their expectation at direct meetings with the Deputy Prime Minister, the Group, the Ministry of Health, the Food Safety Department, and the Legal Department (Ministry of Health) on removing difficulties and shortcomings for enterprises in the food processing industry.

After efforts, on 15th May 2018, the Government issued Resolution No. 19-2018 / NQ-CP, which instructed the Ministry of Health to "study the amendment and supplement to Decree 09 in direction of the deregulation of "salt used for food processing must be supplemented with iodine"; and deregulation of “wheat flour used for food processing must be supplemented with iron and zinc." Instead, it should only encourage businesses to use micronutrients for food processing.

So far, the Ministry of Health has not yet issued a decree amending and replacing Decree 09 as directed in the spirit of Resolution 19-2018 / NQ-CP issued by the Government to promptly remove difficulties and obstacles that businesses are encountering.

The Ministry of Health continues consultation to amend some regulations on business conditions

Therefore, at the seminar, experts and businesses unanimously recommended that the Ministry of Health should soon revise Decree 09 towards not requiring food manufacturing enterprises to add micronutrients such as iodine, iron and zinc, and only encourage them to use. Instead, it is necessary to promote the propagation and encourage people to understand the benefits of micronutrients and to use natural foods containing micronutrients properly to ensure adequate absorption of the necessary micronutrients.