Spill over nutritional foods containing banned substances on the market

	Counterfeit drug, pseudo nutritional food - Part 1: All for profit "terrible"
	​Saving 2,500 billion VND by cutting down specialized inspections of food safety

This is a website promoting herbal tea products containing banned substances.

Freedom of violation

According to information from the Department of Food Safety, the Ministry of Health, the agency has just issued a document asking Mat Xi SG Co., Ltd., to recover lots of food to protect the health of Golean Detox weight loss tea (produced on August 29 / 2018, with an expiry date until August 29, 2018 and the production lot October 20, 2018, expiry date until October 20, 2019), as the test results show banned substances containing Sibutramine - creating a full feeling without appetite, but increasing the risks of seizures, heart attacks, arrhythmias and strokes.

Although it has been recommended by many countries, but Golean Detox weight loss tea is still heavily advertised on social networking sites, websites like goleandetoxvietnam.net; tragiamcangolean.com; sanphamtunhien.vn; tragiamcanvytea.com; matxisg.com; goleanvietnam.vn

Acting as a customer who needs to lose weight, the reporter calls the phone number 0968007698 written on website tragiamcanvytea.com, and the reporter is told by a male counselor that Golean Detox is a type of tea that reduces body fat cells, is made from herbs, not only dissolves fat but also reduces belly fat, and also helps to eliminate toxins quickly in just 1-2 weeks with no need to abstain from food or strict practice. "With only one bottle of this product, customers can reduce 1-2 kg without strict diet or high-intensity training," the counselor pledged.

Regarding product prices, the uniform selling price is VND 650,000 / box, buying two boxes for VND 1,250,000 and VND 1.8 million / 3 boxes. Buying from 5 or more boxes costs VND 550,000 / box, free delivery nationwide. When the reporter asked about the Golean Detox products being recalled for containing banned substances, this employee still "calmly" said that it was due to a batch “model” error, so enterprises voluntarily recalled, but it did not contain banned substances because this is a product produced by Vietnam based on Malaysian technology. "You can fully believe in the quality of the product, many people have used the product before you and have had good results without any health problems," the counselor said.

In addition to Golean Detox products found to contain banned substances, Herbal Tea branded Vy & Tea has also been detected by authorities with Sibutramine and Phenolphthalein banned from use in food. This product is from Ha Vy Trading Service One Member Company Limited (Tho Son commune, Bu Dang district, Binh Phuoc province). However, up to the present time, this product is still advertised and sold rampantly on tragiamcanvty.com website for 500,000 VND / product.

A sales consultant of the establishment also deliberately cheated that the product recalled for containing a banned substance is a competitor's to lower the reputation of the business, not the genuine product. Business meanwhile, according to the revocation decision of the Department of Food Safety, Herbal Tea products under Vy & Tea trademark of Ha Vy Trading Service One Member Co., Ltd., (Address: House No. 45, Group 1, Highway 14 In Son Hiep village, Tho Son commune, Bu Dang district, Binh Phuoc province, is identical to the address of the production facility that the website advertises on products.

Earlier, the Department of Food Safety decided to recall many other products such as Hoa Sam Dat herbal tea; oriental weight loss medicinal pills, family name Nguyen; Eastern medicine that increases and decreases weight, Tien Hanh; Cuong Anh weight loss tea ... contains banned substances harming users’ health. And most recently, Hanoi authorities have caught a fake weight loss food production facility at Dong Ngac (Bac Tu Liem, Hanoi). The fake weight-loss food production is "terrifying", including corn flour, sticky rice, molasses and a banned substance from Sibutramine.

Not to mention in the past time, consumers have been in danger due to the use of unknown "Diabetes" products containing Phenphormin-active ingredients banned by countries around the world and Vietnam, that were circulated for many years.

Too many firms violate

According to the leadership of the Food Safety Department, during the past, Directive No. 17 / CT-TTg dated June 19, 2018 of the Prime Minister on strengthening the fight against smuggling, trade fraud and production was implemented. Trading in counterfeit and substandard goods belonging to the group of pharmaceutical products, cosmetics and nutritional foods, the Ministry of Health has strengthened the inspection and handling of violations of enterprises, but it cannot handle comprehensively because there are too many firms violating.

“Although authorities are constantly sanctioning and recalling products, many profiteering establishments and individuals, despite the law, defy ethics, have contempt for the health and lives of consumers, are deliberately deceitful in production, marketed poor quality products, even harmful products containing banned substances that cause danger to human health," admitted Nguyen Thanh Phong.

Responding to the report of Hai Phong Newspaper's reporter on whether or not there is a gap in controlling food for health protection, Director of Food Safety Department Nguyen Thanh Phong said, in principle for nutritional foods, health-protective foods before being marketed must be assessed for safety and product use. However, the purposeful mistakes that many establishments make are to mislead consumers by illegal advertising. Specifically, in addition to forms of violations such as sales / advertising without a media license, there have been a situations of advertising and selling online with many health-related items without publishing or registering with state management agencies.

In addition, according to Phong, there are many social network users, even using some public influencers to advertise false content. Not to mention, there is an advertised product above listed as a pharmacist, a consultant doctor but in fact, through inspection and examination, many pharmacists have doctors that do not have knowledge about nutrition, some are even just students who have just graduated from university and have not received a university diploma acting as a doctor, or as a counceling pharmacist.

"Especially, there are many enterprises being invited by the management agency to work, they do not admit their products are advertised on those websites. Or companies that publish powdered foods but produce pellets, or write about product uses that are completely different from the announcement; many products have been withdrawn registration licenses but businesses are still stealthily producing,” said the Director of Food Safety Department.

With the above-mentioned problems, according to Phong, the state management agency will sanction to the highest level and put violators into the "black list" to regularly take samples for testing; bar, check with high frequency to detect errors (if any) to prevent the risk of poor quality products affecting consumers.

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In particular, with the nutritional food and weight-loss food products that caused a great "scandal" because of banned substances, according to Ms. Tran Viet Nga, Deputy Director of Food Safety Department, the agency has written a document to propose border-gate customs agencies to apply strict inspection methods for health protection food products that announce weight-loss benefits.

“The application of tight inspection is the highest test method for imported food today, only applying the product with warning of specialized management, provincial People's Committee, authorities in foreign countries and manufacturers', stressed Mrs. Nga