Many new points in the management of food safety

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Director General of Food Safety Department under the Ministry of Health Nguyen Thanh Phong said that the new Decree detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Food Safety is developed towards significantly cutting procedures of registration, announcement and specialized inspection of food, transferring from pre-inspection to post- inspection. This adjustment is to create convenient legal corridors and maximum favourable conditions for enterprises, but still on the basis of taking the people's health as a top priority.

The first new point in the decree according to the director of Food Safety Department is that enterprises are permitted to self-announce their products and are responsible under the law for that announcement, rather than sending the records of announcement to the state agencies for certification, excepting some products which must be announced at the Ministry of Health and the Department of Health.

Specifically, Health food, compound food additives with new usage will be registered for the announcement at the Food Safety Department under the Ministry of Health; Nutritional products for children up to 36 months of age will be registered for the announcement at the local health department; and the remaining products shall be announced by enterprises under the instruction.

According to the announcement of enterprises, the state management agencies will strengthen post-inspection, inspection and sanctions for violations, in which expanding the scope and raising the level of sanctions in accordance with the law. In particular, there are some items exempt from announcement.

According to the above regulation, under the calculations by the Central Institute for Economic Management, about 95% of food products are exempt from administrative procedures. If this is carried out strictly, 1.8 million working days and more than VND 600 billion shall be saved.

The second point of the Decree is the change in the regulations on production and business conditions to ensure food safety and approach to global management methods. This is an expansion of the enterprises which do not need a certificate of eligibility for food safety as well as an expansion of enterprises which are exempt from a certificate of eligibility for food safety.

Accordingly, the initial small production establishment, initial processing establishments, restaurants, food stores, etc., will not have to apply for certificate of eligibility for food safety and have right to self announce and take responsibility. "All of these new regulations aim to minimize administrative procedures. However, in order to effectively implement the regulations while ensuring the food safety and hygiene, there will be a strict decentralization for local authorities," Phong stressed.

This Decree also specifies foods that must be registered for their contents before being advertised as food for health protection, nutritional food for medical purposes, food for special diet; nutritional products for children up to 36 months of age not subject to band from advertisement in Article 7 of the Advertising Law.

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On the assignment of responsibility for state management of food safety, the Decree clarifies the management responsibilities of the three ministries, including Health, Industry and Trade, Agriculture and Rural Development in the direction that the ministries are in absolute charge of management of commodity groups

For some enterprises producing many kinds of food products under the management jurisdiction of two or more ministries, the ministry which manages the product with the largest quantity will be in charge of those enterprises.