Vietnam has a comprehensive legal system for controlling food quality, hygiene and safety during production, processing, trading and circulation, both import and export.
Since the passage of the Ordinance on Food Safety and Hygiene, which took effect on November 1, 2003, hundreds of regulations have been issued. Among the most important are Government Decree No. 163/2004/ND-CP, Decree No. 45/2005/ND-CP on administrative violations in the healthcare domain, Prime Minister’s Decision No. 43/2006/QD-TTg approving a national action plan to assure food hygiene and safety, Directive No. 06/2007/CT-TTg on urgent measures for assuring food hygiene and safety, Decision No. 149/2007/QD-TTg approving the national target program on food hygiene and safety during 2006-10, and Government Decree No. 79/2008/ND-CP on food hygiene and safety administration, inspections and testing.
Food hygiene and safety is also regulated by the Law on Standards and Technical Regulations, the Law on Goods and Product Quality, the Pharmacy Law, the Law on Advertising, the Animal Health Ordinance and the Law on Plant Protection.
According to incomplete statistics, there are over 1,000 regulations concerning food hygiene and safety, including 299 issued by central agencies and nearly 930 by local authorities,[1] regulating all areas of food safety, from food additives and materials, to production, processing and trading conditions and high-risk foods. Food hygiene and safety administration has been shifted from pre- to post-inspection (administration based on notified and applied standards and regulations) and from phased inspection to food supply chain administration. The system of technical documents on food hygiene and safety has been incrementally revised to comply with international requirements.
Vietnam has also promulgated hundreds of national standards and technical regulations applicable to food safety and hygiene, with nearly 200 issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
However, these standards and technical regulations remain insufficient and their issuance slow. By February 2009, there were only 406 Vietnam standards out of a total of 648 related to food safety compared to tens of thousands of kinds of foodstuffs currently circulated on the market. Among these standards, 139 comply with ISO standards, 45 with Codex and 72 accept regional or other international standards.
Most major food traders have strictly observed technical regulations, and many any exporters have also applied advanced quality control systems such as HACCP and GAP. Four hundred forty-eight seafood processing enterprises have applied HACCP, 300 meet standards for exporting products to EU markets, 238 for Canada, 442 for South Korea, 444 for China and 30 for Russia. Meat, tea and fruit and vegetable processing enterprises are actively implementing quality control measures, and some have applied HACCP[2].
In enforcing the Ordinance on Food Hygiene and Safety, the system of state agencies has been strengthened at all levels. Under Decree No. 79/2008/ND-CP, at the central level, five ministries assume major responsibilities in the food supply chain, with the Ministry of Health taking charge of state administration of food hygiene and safety. A central steering committee has been set up to coordinate ministry activities related to food hygiene and safety. At the local level, provincial-level People’s Committees are responsible for administering food quality, hygiene and safety in their localities. Joint steering committees on food hygiene and safety have been formed at communal, district and provincial levels. At present, 44 provinces and centrally run cities have set up Food Quality, Hygiene and Safety Administration Boards under provincial-level Health Departments or Food Hygiene and Safety Faculties under Preventive Medicine Centers[3]. Eighteen provinces and centrally run cities have Agro-Forestry and Fishery Product Quality Control Departments, while 41 others have Food Quality, Hygiene and Safety Administration Boards under provincial-level Departments of Agriculture and Rural Development.
A network of food hygiene and safety inspection has been established at all levels. At the central level, there are a national food hygiene and safety testing institute, four regional food hygiene and safety testing institutes and two testing institutes under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Science and Technology. At the local level, there are testing laboratories at preventive medicine centers, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food safety and hygiene testing centers operated by provincial-level Health Departments, and testing laboratories under district-level health centers. There are testing centers and laboratories at scientific research institutes and universities, and private testing laboratories. There are 72 public establishments involved in food hygiene and safety testing, but no figures available on private ones.
Many establishments still lack testing equipment and chemicals, or precision analysis instruments. Since none of them reach international or regional standards, they are unqualified to act as arbiters in resolving conflicts over testing results and food quality, hygiene and safety in international trade.
Under Decree No. 79/2008/ND-CP, a specialized food hygiene and safety inspection force was formed in August 2008. Previously, this specialized inspection was conducted by health, animal health and plant protection inspectors as well as market management forces. Inspectors are tasked to discover and deal with violations of the law, propose corrective measures and recall and destroy inferior-quality food.
Food quality, hygiene and safety administration includes the application of HACCP, GMP and VietGAP standards, training on the food safety law, and active participation by associations and technical service providers such as Vinacontrol, FCC and SGS.
Realities show that the organizational apparatus in charge of food hygiene and safety is cumbersome, with multiple agencies participating in a single stage of the food supply chain, e.g., three ministries participating in the food distribution or processing stages. Coordination among concerned agencies remains poor. Many local authorities still regard food hygiene and safety administration as the sole responsibility of the healthcare sector, so the involvement of local justice, agriculture and industry and trade agencies is limited. Food hygiene and safety administration remains slow to change and lacks a long-term strategy.
Along with reviewing the implementation of the law on food hygiene and safety over the past six years, the Ministry of Health, in its capacity as the agency in charge of food hygiene and safety administration, has proposed various measures for renewing and improving the effectiveness of administrative efforts to regulate the food supply chain’ from farm to dining table’ in order to ensure food safety for the public.
A food safety law should be promulgated and relevant laws amended to ensure coordinated enforcement. The State should adopt policies to encourage restructuring of livestock and plants and the development of large material production zones in association with developing a safe farm produce market. Food producers, processors and distributors should be encouraged to renew technologies, expand production scale and apply advanced quality-control systems, and to build brands and develop safe food supply networks.
A national strategy to assure food hygiene and safety in 2011-20 is required. State administration should also be further renewed towards controlling pollution risks in the entire food supply chain and issuing adequate standards and technical regulations. Responsibilities of ministries should be clearly defined in all stages of food production while there should be mechanisms for coordinating their activities in the administration of the food supply chain. Further decentralization to localities is needed together with increased investment of resources. The specialized inspection and testing system should bring into play the role of enterprises, social and socio-professional organizations and mass organizations in ensuring food quality, hygiene and safety. It is also necessary to promote the signing of treaties and bilateral and multilateral agreements on food hygiene and safety and mutual recognition of standard conformity certification results (VLLF).-
[1] Report No. 225/BC-UBTVQH12 of the National Assembly Standing Committee.
[2] Report No. 2100/BNN-QLCL of July 17, 2009, of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
[3] Report No. 671/BC-BYT of July 16, 2009, of the Ministry of Health.