Examination of formaldehyde content on textiles and garments according to the regulations of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, procedures for certifying the conformity of food safety regulations stipulated in Decree 38/2012 / ND-CP; Circular 19/2012 / TT-BYT of the Ministry of Health are two issues causing annoyance for businesses (DN) for many years.

The issue of formaldehyde has been rejected by the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Particularly, the issue of certification of conformity with food safety regulations - despite being assessed by the Government as "not regulated in the Law on Food Safety ", "less effective in practical implementation", "is no longer used in food safety management of the countries in the world "need to be amended (Report No. 37 / BC-CP dated February 3, 2017 of the Government on food safety and dispatch to the National Assembly Supervision Delegation), was  resolved by Resolution No19, 2017 of the  Government together with conclusion of the Deputy Prime Minister at  the dialogue on May 13, 2017, and under the guidance of 321 / TB-VPCP dated July 21, 2017 requesting the removal – but, has not been abolished.

After many times, and many agencies, units, public opinions have recommended, this issue  is still not received by the Ministry of Health (MOH), in addition, they still provide flimsy reasons, lack of bases such as: must hold the certification according to the high risk of losing food safety from ' two - plot vegetable-  and two-stall pigs' (but in reality, the declaration of food safety is only applicable to pre-packaged products, not for fresh food). The risk of losing food safety is very high if the certification of food safety for pre-packaged food is dropped due to poor awareness of people (but the report of Government's 37 / BC-CP defined  that nearly 98% of food poisoning is due to collective kitchens, street food, and not by packaged food; This report also admitted  that  food safety confirmation had no effect on food safety management), on August 15, 2017, representatives of the above associations continued to hold meetings on this issue. Attending in the meeting, extra of the representatives of associations, there were leaders of the Department of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and Ministry of Science and Technology, Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Vietnam (VCCI).

 The parties at the meeting shared the same view and emphasized their wish to accompany with the Government to better and more effectively manage food safety on a legal basis, based on science and integration; not be complicated, wasted time, money and less effective ás current. The Associations would like to enclose herewith the results of the meeting. The Association recommended to the Deputy Prime Minister and the Council President the following issues:

1) Proposed to deregulate the certificate of conformity of food safety regulations in Decree 38/2012 / ND-CP due to low management effectiveness and no effect to ensure food safety for consumers. It was possible to consider replacing the above regulation with: The producer (or the food trader with the legal authorization of the producer) must comply with the Ministry of health's regulations on food safety by submitting to the Ministry of health the registration of food quality with adequate indicators and food safety limits in accordance with the Ministry of health’s regulations and at the same time, publicized the indicators and content on the label, product packing and documents attached to the product in accordance with the regulation of Article 23 of the Law on Good Product Quality.

Ministry of Health's regulations on food safety for unregulated products and groups must be public and transparent. Sample of registration of food quality regulated by the Ministry of Health. The registration was done electronically. The registration number issued by the system immediately after the Ministry of Health  has received the registration form, completed the required content (similar to the current number of Customs Declaration). Dossiers of registration are kept by the Ministry of Health when needed.

Deregulated food safety and hygiene regulations in Decree 38/2012 / ND-CP, which was replaced by the regulations mentioned above, would not affect the food safety management but would save enterprises millions of workdays each year.

 2) According to current regulations, in addition to being certified declaration of compliance with food safety regulations, each imported goods must be checked for food safety. According to the Department of Information and Technology (GDC), in 2016, there were 163,960 imported goods must be inspected before being cleared. This is also a burden of procedure and cost for businesses in this field. To overcome this situation, the Resolution No 19 of the Government of 2015, 2016 and 2017 requested the ministries to apply the principle of risk management and priority business regime in the field of specialized inspection. However,until now there are not any ministries that  has applied. Procedures of reduced inspection at Department of Food Safety - Ministry of Health are very difficult and take months. In implementation of the provisions of Resolution No 19, the Government is required to make detailed provisions for the implementation of Clause 3, Article 39 of the Law on Food Safety ("the Government shall specify the exemption of State inspection of food safety for some imported foodstuffs") in direction of applying the preferential business regime in the field of specialized inspection in general and in the field of food safety inspection in particular, whereby, exemption from customs inspection for imported food of businesses with history of  good law compliance. The examination and inspection shall comply with the provisions in Articles 66 and 67 of the Law on Food Safety.

3) At present, the Ministry of food regulate food safety’s procedures are inconsistent, make it difficult for  implementation. Pursuant to the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents, it is recommended that the Government regulates the procedures for food safety management in this decree, especially stipulating the contents of the three inspection procedures stipulated in the Law on Food Safety, overcoming the status of each Ministry stipulates each difference  as present. At the same time, to stipulate conditions and procedures for simplifying inspection procedures to many items in order to those items  that have been inspected to be applied this inspection mode. (Currently the procedure is very complex; the proportion of items applied is extremely small, the application time is too short).

4) Currently, most food products are under the management of more than one Ministry (especially the Ministry of Health and Veterinary Inspection of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development).

It is recommended that the Government review and stipulate that only fresh products must be quarantined; With the items that at the same time must quarantine and  check food safety, These will deliver to  the quarantine agency to implement. Assignment to quarantine authorities will be reasonable as this force is always present directly at the border (currently Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has assigned quarantine agencies to perform both quarantine and food safety)