Temporarily suspending the circulation of 13 products of Coca Cola Vietnam

The company's food supplements do not have a food supplement manufacturing license issued by the authorities.

On July 1, the Ministry of Health Inspectorate sent a dispatch to the health departments of 6 provinces and cities across the country: Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Can Tho, Khanh Hoa and Nghe An, requesting that localities monitor and temporarily suspend the circulation of 13 supplementary drinking water products of this company.

Accordingly, these 13 products include Minute Maid Nutriboost fruit milk drink in strawberry, orange, and mango flavors, Samurrai energy drink in strawberry flavor in glass and PET bottles, Teppy orange juice with pulp, Aquarius and Dasani sports drinks with added minerals.

The reason for the suspension of 13 products was stated by the Ministry of Health inspector because they did not have a certificate of food safety qualification in the production of food supplements.

According to information from the Ministry of Health, since the beginning of June, the Ministry of Health Inspectorate has announced inspections of a series of companies, in which the comprehensive inspection of Coca Cola Company started on June 21.

During the inspection, problems were revealed such as all three factories of Coca Cola company in Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang and Hanoi producing the above mentioned food supplements, while the company did not have a license to produce food supplements issued by the authorities.

Temporarily suspending circulation of 13 Coca Cola products

Therefore, the Ministry of Health Inspectorate has suspended production and requested to temporarily stop circulation of the above products to complete the required paperwork.

To clarify the above information, speaking with Dat Viet on July 2, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Phong - Director of the Department of Food Safety, Ministry of Health said: "This is only a requirement in terms of administrative procedures, not in terms of quality.

Previously, according to regulations, the certificate of hygiene eligibility for normal drinking products was issued by the local Food Safety Department. However, Coca Cola Vietnam Company has produced some vitamin-supplemented drinks, which according to regulations must be licensed by the Ministry of Health or the Food Safety Department.

Recently, there was a joint Circular between the Ministry of Health - Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Industry and Trade, stipulating that an enterprise can only be licensed by one unit, avoiding the case of one enterprise being licensed twice.

Therefore, the Food Safety Department believes that for a business that the local Food Safety Department has granted, the Department will not grant it again. But if the Inspectorate says it is wrong, the Food Safety Department will re-grant it according to correct administrative procedures.

Meanwhile, speaking to the press, Mr. Nguyen Khoa My, Director of External Affairs and Communications, Coca-Cola Vietnam, also affirmed that Coca-Cola factories have been certified to be qualified to produce carbonated and non-carbonated soft drinks and bottled water.

However, Mr. My acknowledged that a few months ago, through internal inspection, Cocacola Vietnam found that there was an additional requirement on the production conditions for soft drinks with added micronutrients (also known as dietary supplements).

“Coca-Cola Vietnam admitted that it had not fully updated the changes in regulations,” Mr. My said, but the company quickly corrected the situation by completing the application to register for eligibility to produce the products.

Mr. Khoa My stated that up to now, Cocacola Vietnam has had a certificate of eligibility to produce food supplements for factories in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Da Nang issued by the Ministry of Health, therefore, he believes that Cocacola's products are safe and currently meet Vietnam's food safety standards.

Before Mr. My's explanation, the Director of the Food Safety Department said: "When a business submits its application, it must be given priority immediately, and cannot be allowed to stop operations because of an administrative procedure.

We will issue the license immediately, normally it takes about 15 days to get this license, but if necessary it will only take 1-2 days, because they have a hygiene certificate from the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health, in addition to ISO certification.

In principle, a hygiene certificate is required to issue a product consumption certificate. We think that a certificate from the Department of Health is enough, but for supplementary products, it must be issued by the Food Safety Department, so we must create conditions to help businesses not face difficulties due to administrative procedures."

According to baodatviet.vn