Ministry of Health "returns name to milk"

On September 29, Minister and Head of the Government Office Vu Duc Dam signed a document notifying the Prime Minister's opinion requesting the Ministry of Health to issue a list of milk and dairy products for children under 6 years old according to the provisions of the Law on Prices before October 5.The incident has shown the huge social impact of the recent skyrocketing milk prices.

The fact that products called “milk” for children under 6 years old “suddenly” disappeared from the market, along with the price of milk increasing under new names, the responsibility first belongs to the Ministry of Health, when it “suddenly” issued a new regulation with the reason that “the ingredients in products for young children must be age-appropriate, the amount of milk protein must be only 11-12%, and at the same time, micronutrients and vitamins must be added to help children grow. Meanwhile, milk is a product with a protein content of 34%”.

From the perspective of the Ministry of Health, milk is in a price crisis with a dizzying increase. Public opinion is indignant, the Ministry of Finance has a document requesting the Prime Minister to request the Ministry of Health to preside over and coordinate with the Ministry of Finance to specify regulations for milk products and declare prices for these products, however, the Ministry of Health still affirms that "issuing technical regulations for powdered milk products and nutritional products for young children does not cause misunderstandings, nor does it increase the price of these products...". The Ministry of Health also explains that "re-identifying milk for children under 6 years old is to comply with international regulations and practices of which Vietnam is a member country. For a long time, consumers have mistakenly called all products containing powdered milk as milk".

Citing “international practice” to convince public opinion, it turned out that the Ministry of Health was the one who “mistaken” when renaming milk. The evidence is that international organizations had to issue a Joint Communique on this issue, to confirm that this was “the incorrect renaming of breast milk substitutes as “supplementary foods” or “nutritional products” and to point out that “the incorrect naming of formula milk products as “supplementary foods” has caused great misunderstanding”.

Thanks to the name change, milk has escaped price controls in recent months.

Thus, it is clear that the Ministry of Health did not rely on scientific grounds on children's health to come up with a new name for milk! Nor did it rely on international standards to "standardize". So the public has the right to ask: Why did the Ministry of Health have to "rename" milk in such a sensitive context as soon as milk products for children under 6 years old were put under price management? Especially when, changing the name of milk only benefits businesses by avoiding having to register prices with the Ministry of Finance every time they increase or decrease prices?

While dairy products are related to millions of children every day and there have been many meetings and documents between relevant ministries, the Ministry of Health is still determined to "not return the name to milk", while the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Industry and Trade have not proposed adding nutritional products to the price stabilization list. People continue to suffer from milk prices that are almost the highest in the world, while the relevant ministries, instead of working together to solve the problem for the benefit of the people, only find ways to blame and shift responsibility to each other. For many months, the handling of the relevant ministries has been at a standstill, leading to warnings about serious impacts on the health of Vietnamese children. At this point, before the abnormalities in the milk market, there is another question that consumers have the right to ask: Is this an act of price manipulation and who is condoning this?

Under pressure from public opinion and the Government, finally, in a few days, milk will have to be called... milk! But with what has happened, along with the fact that up to now, the circulars of the Ministry of Health only relate to products for children 36 months old and under, meaning there is still a gap from 36 months to 6 years old, it can be clearly seen that the management of the Ministry of Health still needs to be rectified. But what consumers want to know, behind the renaming of milk leading to the skyrocketing milk price here is poor qualifications, poor management capacity, or what is behind?

Whatever the cause, it is undeniable that the recent renaming of milk has had huge social consequences, especially in the context of economic difficulties, when it has caused unwanted disruptions, forcing the Government to intervene and the United Nations to speak out strongly. Therefore, it is necessary to clarify the responsibility for letting milk products for children "slip through the net" of price management in the past, and handle it strictly, to prevent similar incidents and regain people's trust.

With the list of milk and dairy products for children 6 years old and under issued by the Ministry of Health, the question continues to be raised: Will the Ministry of Finance allow the products that are very necessary for children to be "priced" again?

On September 30, Dr. Tran Quang Trung, Director of the Department of Food Safety (DFS) of the Ministry of Health, the unit directly involved in the recent "renaming" of milk, told CAND Newspaper reporters: On September 30, the Department of Food Safety officially announced the "Draft Circular promulgating the List of milk and dairy products for children under 6 years old" to collect opinions from organizations and individuals before October 5.

Accordingly, the List of milk and dairy products for children under 6 years old as prescribed in Point h Clause 2 Article 15 of the Law on Prices includes: formula nutritional products for children from 0-36 months old; milk and nutritional products containing milk with or without added micronutrients but not according to the formula prescribed in the technical regulations announced for use for children under 6 years old.

According to CAND - TH