Get tough on advertisements that 'deify' functional foods

PV:In recent years, there has been a widespread advertising of functional foods, especially many false advertisements, causing public outrage. Could you please tell us about this situation?

Mr. Pham Ngoc Quy:In recent times, the management of health food advertising has been strengthened by the Ministry of Health, ministries, branches and Nghe An Department of Health, however, violations of the law in advertising these products are still very complicated. The situation of false advertising, advertising health food as medicine, taking advantage of the name and reputation of medical staff and medical facilities for advertising still occurs. Affecting the rights and health of consumers. Not only that, they also impersonate Vietnam Television, Police Television, National Defense... and use images of public figures and retired scientists to advertise functional foods as medicine, especially advertising on social networking sites. In addition, there are violations such as advertising functional foods without the competent authority's approval of advertising content, advertising food products with content that is not consistent with the content confirmed by the competent authority.

Mr. Pham Ngoc Quy. Photo: TH

PV:Which unit or agency is responsible for managing and supervising health protection foods in particular and functional foods in general, sir?

Mr. Pham Ngoc Quy:The Food Safety Department manages, issues and revokes product declaration registration licenses and advertising content certificates. The Provincial People's Committee performs the task of supervising production, business and advertising activities. In particular, the Department of Health is assigned to receive and publicly announce the names and products of organizations and individuals advertising products in the area on the electronic information page so that people and agencies can easily access information. The People's Committees of districts, towns, Vinh city and the People's Committees of communes, wards and towns are responsible for inspecting, checking and supervising food advertising activities under the management of the health sector in the locality (according to the provisions of Decision No. 11/2021/QD-UBND of the People's Committee of Nghe An province dated May 20, 2021 on the assignment, decentralization and coordination in state management of food safety in Nghe An province).

The Department of Information and Communications is responsible for directing units in the industry to monitor food advertising in accordance with the Law on Advertising, the Law on Food Safety and general regulations in the field of advertising on media and communications. In order to coordinate in the management of advertising activities on media and communications, in 2021, the Department of Food Safety and Hygiene consulted the Department of Health and the Department of Information and Communications to draft the Coordination Regulations of the two Departments and sent two documents requesting to sign the coordination regulations with the Department of Information and Communications, but so far has not received any comments from the Department of Information and Communications.

A TV station was impersonated to make an advertisement. Photo: TH

PV:Are there any limitations in the supervision of functional food advertising in recent times, sir?

Mr. Pham Ngoc Quy:The supervision of functional food advertising activities has not received due attention from the authorities and local governments at all levels. There is still a situation of advertising functional foods in violation of regulations in localities, but the authorities do not grasp the information and have not organized supervision according to regulations, leading to abuse in advertising activities and illegal business. Common is advertising without content assessment or advertising that is not consistent with the assessed content. The selling price of functional foods is many times higher than the actual value of the product. Many types of functional foods are being "deified", considered as universal products, curing all diseases, advertised widely on many channels, of which, on websites, social networks and organizations introducing in residential communities account for the majority, in order to deceive consumers. The coordination in the supervision of advertising activities on social networking sites with Facebook, Google, and Youtube is not yet tight and not really effective.

However, these limitations have their reasons. That is, the regulations on advertising of functional foods have been relaxed, no longer requiring a license for advertising activities at the local level, but only requiring notification of advertising activities to the management agency.

In addition, the district and commune level human resources are still limited and do not have a firm grasp of the legal regulations on advertising of functional foods. Meanwhile, advertising units go to each commune, ward, even block, hamlet and house to advertise, so supervision work is quite difficult.

The man went to the village cultural house to advertise functional foods. Photo: TH

The group of functional food products is not in the list of price stabilization groups, moreover, advertising units do not have a fixed address or location, often organizing mobile advertising. Registering to open a website is very easy, buying a foreign domain name is also very cheap and easy in terms of procedures. Meanwhile, cross-border advertising is very difficult to solve because foreign companies, headquarters are located abroad and operate under the laws of the host country, so it is very difficult to manage.

On the other hand, organizations and individuals often organize mobile advertising and when there is feedback from people, they continue to move to other areas to avoid inspection and supervision by local authorities as well as management agencies. When the management agency has access to information and contacts the advertising organization unit according to the written notice to the Department, the advertising units deny responsibility, with the reason that those advertising cases are not and are not in their organizational system or cannot be contacted, so the authorities cannot identify the violators, so they cannot handle it. To ensure people's safety, the Food Safety Department has promptly warned on the Department's website about violations in advertising activities. In 2020 and 2021 alone, there were 246 warning posts on this website.

PV:To limit this situation, what do you think should be done?

Mr. Pham Ngoc Quy:In my opinion, there needs to be a coordinated effort from many ministries, branches and localities. Specifically, the Ministry of Health can propose to the Government to amend Decree No. 15/2018/ND-CP dated February 2, 2018 of the Government detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Food Safety. Stricter regulations on conditions for the field of advertising of functional foods.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Industry and Trade needs to strengthen the management of e-commerce trading floors, manage multi-level marketing companies that sell functional foods, and have measures to monitor multi-level activities, especially member development seminars of companies to avoid false word-of-mouth advertising.

The Ministry of Information and Communications needs to strictly handle organizations and individuals who violate the law, and take strong measures against Facebook, Google, and Youtube, requiring them to strictly comply with Vietnam's laws on advertising. Deal with agencies that publish advertisements when the advertising content has not been assessed. The Ministry of Public Security should also step in to inspect and strictly handle domain owners who advertise on social networking sites to set an example...

An old man spent a large sum of money to buy functional foods because he believed the advertisement. Photo: TH

PV:Regarding the Nghe An Food Safety and Hygiene Department, are there any solutions in the coming time, sir?

Mr. Pham Ngoc Quy:We have determined that in the coming time, we will continue to promote information and communication work so that people can clearly understand the actual uses of functional foods to avoid misunderstandings; disseminate legal regulations on advertising activities to officials working in food safety management and local authorities to better monitor, inspect and handle violations in the field of food advertising.

In addition, we will strengthen coordination with relevant units to strictly control advertising content on websites, social networks, radio, television, newspapers, and television. At the same time, we will regularly organize inspections, checks, and supervision of advertising business activities, promptly warn people, take samples sold on the market to monitor pollution risks for early detection and timely handling, ensuring that consumers avoid unsafe products.

PV:Thank you for this conversation!