The
new Food Safety Law has left many cooking companies perplexed over where to go for
their documents when the Law takes effect in July.

Canned meat being processed in an industrial zone in the southern province of Long An. A decree is being drafted to provide detailed regulations for obtaining food safety certificates. (Photo: VNS)

The Law spreads
responsibility for food safety management to three ministries depending on the
type of food product in question: the Ministry of Health (MoH), Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT).
For example, MARD will control production, processing and trade of grain, meat,
produce and eggs, while MoIT will control beverages, processed milk and
vegetable oil.

To facilitate
implementation of the law and reduce the administrative burden on firms, MoH is
compiling a draft decree which is expected to provide detailed regulations on
obtaining a food safety certificate, management of genetically modified products
and responsibilities of relevant authorities.

Nguyen Cong Khan,
director of Viet Nam Food Administration under MoH and also head of the board
compiling the draft, called for contributions to the draft decree at a workshop
held yesterday, April 7.

The draft decree was
built on the needs of consumers and firms, he said, adding it was expected that
each food firm would only deal with a single authority.

The draft calls for
safety certificates to be issued by whichever ministry is in charge of that
specific product. However, director of Dekalb Ltd Co Nguyen Thanh Ki said that
genetically modified products are controlled by MARD while products that include
processed milk and vegetable oils are controlled by MoIT could potentially
contain genetically-modified ingredients.

“The guiding decree
needs to include regulations to solve the overlaps in management,” he said.

Phan Thi Kim, former
head of the Viet Nam Food Administration said there were about 9 million
household food producers in the country and most food-related risk arose from
this group which included street food vendors. However, as written the draft
said that street vendors were not a target for food safety certificates and
their control at all levels would fall under local People’s Committees. So, a
regulation about street food needed to be included in the decree, she said.

The draft also
proposes a valid time limit for the certificates. Food producers with quality
management certificates such as HACCP, GMP and ISO 9001 would receive five-year
certificates while two or three year certificates would be offered to those
without.

A representative from
Abbott Laboratories Company said that the decree also needed to clarify a time
limit for authorities to respond to firms after submission of an application for
a food safety certificate.

The draft also
regulates that in addition to expiration date information, the term “best before
[date]” could be printed on the label.

After the
“best-before-date”, the products could still remain on the market if their
producers could prove they were still safe for human consumption.

Le Thuy Duong from
AusAID, the Australian Government’s Overseas Aid Programme, said that when
referring to “best before”, the producers/importers or exporters needed to add
“the product is best before… ” and “in which condition”, which would help to
avoid complaints about the product quality if they were not kept in proper
conditions.

VietNamNet/Viet
Nam News