The Ministry of Industry and Trade has just issued an urgent dispatch to the People's Committees of provinces and cities; the Department of Domestic Market Management and Development and the Departments of Industry and Trade of provinces and cities on strengthening market supervision, inspection and control, especially for dairy products, medicines and health protection foods.

Accordingly, in the urgent dispatch No. 2755/CD-BCT dated April 18, the Minister of Industry and Trade, Deputy Head of the National Steering Committee 389 requested the People's Committees of provinces and cities to direct competent agencies to urgently review and inspect the compliance with the law of drug and health food businesses in the area, recall counterfeit drugs and health food that have been discovered, and strictly handle violations in accordance with regulations.

In addition, the leaders of the Ministry of Industry and Trade requested the People's Committees of provinces and cities to strengthen inspection and supervision of food safety work; resolutely fight, prevent and strictly handle organizations, individuals, production and business establishments that violate food safety regulations. Promote the role of authorities at all levels, management agencies, social organizations and consumer supervision of compliance with food safety laws for individuals, food production and business establishments.

The Minister also requested the People's Committees of provinces and cities to direct competent agencies under the provincial People's Committees to conduct post-inspection of self-declaration of products/registration of product declarations, production, trading, import, advertising, sampling and testing of products/product groups in Appendix II of Decree 15/2018/ND-CP dated February 2, 2018 of the Government.

Also in this dispatch, the Minister requested localities to develop a post-inspection plan for food production and trading establishments in the area, focusing on controlling food safety assurance, post-inspecting compliance with food safety regulations for establishments producing, trading, importing, and advertising health protection foods (on newspapers, radio and the Internet); establishments producing and trading medical nutritional foods, foods for special diets; establishments producing, trading, importing, and advertising supplementary food products and nutritional formula products for young children.

“Direct relevant authorities to increase sampling to check the quality of goods for inspection teams in the localities. Strengthen inspection and strictly handle acts of making false statements and advertisements, especially for products that directly affect people's health,” the dispatch stated.

Regarding the Department of Domestic Market Management and Development, the Minister requested the Department to closely follow developments in the domestic market, closely coordinate with local authorities to ensure market stability and supply and demand of goods; direct market management forces to strengthen inspection and control, promptly detect, prevent and strictly handle acts of production and trading of fake food, fake milk and fake medicine.

For the Department of Industry and Trade of provinces and cities, focus on directing the local Market Management Department to focus on implementing the work of managing the area, regularly monitoring and supervising the market to promptly detect unusual developments of goods circulating on the market, especially dairy products, medicines, health protection foods, especially at small retail channels, unofficial agents, e-commerce platforms and social networks, where there are many potential risks of counterfeit goods, goods of unknown origin, and poor quality goods; proactively coordinate with local authorities to comprehensively review and inspect establishments producing and trading in dairy products, medicines, and health protection foods.