The draft amendment of Decree No.15/2018/ND-CP on food safety is attracting attention from the business community. What is the Vietnam Associaion of Seafood Exporters and Producers’ (VASEP) perspective on this draft?

Nguyen Hoai Nam, general secretary of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers

VASEP is particularly concerned about food safety issues as it is a crucial factor throughout the production, consumption, and export processes.

Over the past seven years since its issuance, Decree 15 has been evaluated by the government and the business community as an effective reform model in food safety management, aligning with the risk management principles that are applied by advanced countries around the world. This has helped businesses save millions of working days and millions of US dollars per year.

In practice, the food industry has experienced high growth, even during the pandemic, contributing approximately 15 per cent to Vietnam’s GDP and 0.38 percentage points to the GDP growth in 2021, and 1 percentage point to GDP growth in 2022, according to the Central Institute for Economic Management’s Assessment Report in 2023.

However, upon reviewing the revised draft, we found that the draft focuses only on strict administrative management of pre-packaged processed foods, while not providing appropriate solutions for food poisoning prevention related to street food and fresh food, which are products with high food safety risks. These are also the main causes of recent food poisoning incidents.

The draft is also introducing new requirements and bottlenecks that will cause difficulties for business production and operation, while not providing more effective solutions than Decree 15 to ensure food safety.

What are legal gaps in the draft amendments that could directly affect the fisheries industry?

According to reports from ministries and agencies, there is mention of improving and controlling food safety at small-scale production facilities or street food vendors. We find this issue rather vague in the draft.

The draft adds a requirement that within three months of submitting documents, regulatory authorities must review the documents. If they find any non-compliance, they will ask the organisation or individual to withdraw the documents, causing businesses to hesitate to produce and trade products until three months after submission.

The draft introduces numerous additional requirements and regulations across all three groups of administrative procedures: self-declaration, registration of product declarations, and re-registration of product declarations. Many of these regulations are unreasonable and do not align with international standards, potentially creating new issues for production and business. As a result, many food products, especially seafood, will find it difficult or impossible to meet these requirements.

Furthermore, several new requirements related to these procedures are unrelated to food safety. For instance, for the self-declaration procedure, the draft adds three sections and 26 new items. The dossier processing time is extended by three months, which may cause businesses to refrain from producing or trading products until after three months from submission. For the registration of product declarations, the draft adds three sections.

A controversial point is that the draft applies a management model designed for pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, which are chemical-based, to food products, whereas the International Codex Alimentarius Commission recommends that food products be controlled through the advanced Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point System.

Some unresolved issues and emerging concerns in the food safety regulations, which Decree 15 has yet to address, are still absent in the draft. For example, there are no technical regulations regarding prohibited substances or substances not listed in the inventory, leading to some products being unable to enter domestic retail channels, even though they meet the export requirements for challenging markets such as the EU and the US.

How could the increasing administrative procedures burden seafood businesses, particularly exporters?

VASEP estimates that with the self-declaration procedure, the increase in documentation and processing time could delay business operations for at least three months, leading to a loss of up to $7.2 trillion per year. With the product declaration registration procedure, the increased documentation could cost businesses millions of USD annually, while the additional working days required to implement these changes remain uncertain.

We recommend that the Ministry of Health (MoH) only require declarations for products with technical standards and eliminate the procedure for products that do not meet technical standards, as stipulated by the Law on Food Safety and the Law on Food Standards and Regulations.

For importers, Article 42 of the Law on Food Safety stipulates that exported products should comply with the regulations of the importing country. Therefore, seafood exports will not be subject to the draft’s requirements.

However, many of VASEP’s export markets, such as South America, require a Certificate of Free Sale, and the conditions for obtaining it are related to the draft amendment to Decree 15. With the current increase in procedures, domestic products, imported goods converted from exports to domestic consumption, and products that need a Certificate of Marketability for free sale, required by many export markets, could face problems if this draft is enacted.

What recommendations does VASEP have to adjust the draft in order to reduce procedural burdens while ensuring food safety according to international standards?

VASEP and seafood industry businesses hope that the MoH, and specifically the drafting committee, study the feedback, remove unreasonable regulations, and add suitable management measures to prevent bottlenecks in production and business while ensuring food safety.

We also hope that the government will host a dialogue meeting between the drafting committee and relevant food industry associations to review the final draft before presenting it to the government.

The government is revising the Law on Food Safety, with plans to issue it in October, followed by a decree on implementation. To avoid overlapping legal documents and ensure effective institutional reforms, VASEP suggests that the government consider amending the Food Safety Law first, then amend the implementing decree.

Finally, we recommend maintaining the current self-declaration requirements in Decree 15 rather than adding new ones that could increase costs and risks for businesses.