Consultation continues on the Law on Food Safety. Photo: Le Toan

The workshop is being held by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry in collaboration with the Food Safety Department under the Ministry of Health.

The draft decree introduces several new provisions, such as product explanatory documents accompanying declaration/self-declaration dossiers; storage of product information dossiers; the number of times and deadlines for amending or supplementing dossiers; and cases requiring re-registration.

However, some parties have expressed a view that issues remain in the draft, including a lack of important regulations for ensuring food safety as directed by the government.

For example, to prevent food poisoning, there needs to be a stronger focus on food safety for street food, fresh and raw foods, and collective kitchens, the main causes of food poisoning. Instead, the draft only increases administrative procedures for pre-packaged foods, which rarely cause food poisoning.

Businesses expect to see stricter regulations to shift from pre-inspection to post-inspection of products on the market.

In addition, the registration procedure for health supplement product declarations is currently handled by the Food Safety Department. However, the Government Inspectorate’s conclusions show that most of these administrative procedures have been delayed, and therefore it has been proposed that this procedure be decentralised to local authorities.