Strengthening management of production and business of functional foods

(Baonghean) - After Nghe An Newspaper clarified the violations in production and business of Tam Duc Garlic Private Enterprise, recently, the Market Management Department informed that in 2014, Market Management Team No. 4 handled a number of cases related to functional foods. Thus, it can be seen that the production and business of functional foods are being exploited and need to be strictly managed...

Officers of Market Management Team No. 4 inspect a pharmacy in Cau Giat Town (Quynh Luu).

Violations have been handled

The case related to functional foods handled by Market Management Team No. 4 was just closed on December 28. Mr. Nguyen Tung Son - Captain of Market Management Team No. 4 said: On November 18, the team was informed by the facility that there would be a vehicle transporting goods of unknown origin moving from Hanoi to the South. Determining that the report was well-founded, Team 4 reported to the branch leaders and requested the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district to direct relevant units to coordinate in inspecting this vehicle. Together with traffic police officers, officers of Market Management Team No. 4 "intercepted" all night on November 18, until 1:30 a.m. on November 19, the vehicle described by the facility appeared. It was a car with license plate 29B.11264 driven by Nguyen Hoang Anh, (born in 1968, residing at 79 Hang Ga, Hang Bo Ward, Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi).

Upon inspection, a large shipment was discovered on the vehicle without documents or invoices proving its origin; including a number of items related to modern medicine, medical equipment and supplies, and functional foods (20 bottles of Herbalife) worth about 80 million VND. Working with the authorities, Nguyen Hoang Anh confessed that he was transporting this shipment from Hanoi of an unknown person. The delivery person only took the driver's phone number, then asked to transport the goods to a fixed location, after which someone would contact him to receive the goods, so he did not know specifically who the real owner was. After 7 days of detention, Market Management Team No. 4 announced on the media, asking the owner to come to work and handle the case according to regulations, but the owner still did not appear. After 30 days of detention according to regulations, the team decided to confiscate the entire shipment, prepare a file and transfer it to the Market Management Department.

Previously, Market Management Team No. 4 coordinated with functional forces to inspect and arrest 3 cases. The first case was on March 5, 2014, involving a truck with license plate 43C - 03726 driven by Dinh Van Canh (born in 1971, residing at 198/50 Quang Trung, Thanh Binh Ward, Hai Chau District, Da Nang City). Upon inspection, it was discovered that the vehicle contained 3 bags containing 30 liters of Cellpack - PK solution and 20 kg of VitaminE Acetate packed in tin bags. All of these items had foreign brands, the driver only had a photocopy of the value-added tax invoice, an unnumbered warehouse receipt from Anh Kieu Medical Technology Company Limited. Driver Dinh Van Canh said that he did not know the owner of the goods; he only accepted to transport them for hire from a stranger, and when he arrived at the Da Nang bus station, someone would come to pick them up.

The next case was on October 9, 2014, for a transport vehicle with license plate 74B - 00075 driven by Tran Binh Trong (born in 1975, residing in An Hung, Cam Lo Town, Quang Tri). Upon inspection, the authorities discovered that the vehicle contained many items related to functional foods such as 10 boxes of All Natul, 2 boxes of Trile Royal.Jelly, 40 boxes of Sky rop Rrawos, 10 boxes of Dta - Liqui Elcakium Vitamin, 30 bottles of Juvit D3, 5 boxes of Premium Omega3... All of these items had labels showing that they were manufactured abroad but had no documents or invoices; the driver did not know the owner of the goods...

According to Mr. Nguyen Tung Son, all cases related to functional foods that were inspected and temporarily seized by Market Management Team No. 4 were later reported but no one claimed ownership. Therefore, Market Management Team No. 4 made a record and transferred the seized goods to the Sub-Department for handling according to regulations.

Officers of the Market Management Department inspect functional foods of unknown origin and without owners.

Strengthening management

Considering the batches of functional foods currently seized by the Market Management Department, even though the packaging has labels showing that they are produced in foreign countries such as Japan, the US, and Europe, and the functions are introduced in Vietnamese, it is very difficult to determine the actual quality. According to Mr. Nguyen Van Thuy - Deputy Head of the Professional - Processing Department, Market Management Department: "If the goods were really produced in Japan, the US, or European countries, the packaging and printing quality would never be so poor. And with these types of functional foods of unknown origin and without owners, the Department will report to the Provincial People's Committee, coordinate with relevant agencies to establish a council to organize the destruction".

A representative of the Market Management Department said that the unit had sent officials to Thanh Tien commune, Thanh Chuong district to grasp information related to the private enterprise Toi Tam Duc. Thereby, it was determined that with such poor facilities, Toi Tam Duc could not meet the conditions to produce functional foods. The official who went directly to the facility also said that Toi Tam Duc private enterprise had also removed its signboard and stopped production activities; the website Toi Black Tam Duc has also removed some information related to the promotion and business of black garlic.

It is known that recently, the Thanh Chuong District Health Department also issued a written report on the inspection at the private enterprise Toi Tam Duc. Accordingly, although this enterprise has a Business Registration Certificate, a test result sheet of 1 black garlic sample, a certificate of knowledge of food safety, the production facility is small-scale, mainly using manual methods; there is only one fermentation cabinet with a capacity of about 50 kg of fresh garlic stored in a brick house of about 5 - 6 square meters. After the inspection, the working group requested the private enterprise Toi Tam Duc to immediately stop production, business, advertising and recall the product until it is fully licensed by the competent authority according to current regulations.

To prevent fake, unknown origin, and poor quality functional foods from entering the market, negatively affecting consumers' health, and causing public outrage, it is necessary to further strengthen management of production and business organizations and individuals.

Nhat Lan - Viet Long