Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan - Photo: NY

Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan reported to the National Assembly on the results of implementing the National Assembly's resolutions on questioning and issues promised at the previous session in the health sector.

Recalling 58 cosmetic declaration receipt numbers, many products violated

In the report, Minister Dao Hong Lan clearly stated the implementation of the promise to strengthen management, inspection, examination, and post-inspection in the production and trading of pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and functional foods. Especially business activities on e-commerce sites, e-commerce trading floors, social networks, and strictly handle and publicize violations according to regulations.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Health has issued many official dispatches directing the strengthening of inspection, examination and post-inspection management in the production and trading of pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.

In recent times, the Ministry of Health (Department of Drug Administration) has always closely coordinated with relevant agencies (police, market management, media agencies) to exchange and verify information about cosmetics to serve the investigation and handling of counterfeit cosmetics, cosmetics of unknown origin and commercial fraud, and substandard cosmetics.

At the same time, strictly handle organizations and individuals who violate the law.

The Drug Administration has recalled 58 cosmetic declaration receipt numbers (56 from the Ministry of Health's post-inspection, 1 from the Department of Health, 1 from quality control), 2 products with label violations and 33 products with production and labeling violations (transferred by the Department of Health). Suspended and recalled 9 substandard products, destroyed substandard batches, and imposed a fine of nearly 600 million VND.

Minister Dao Hong Lan said that since the beginning of 2025, the Ministry of Health has strengthened the review of drug trading and advertising activities on e-commerce sites, e-commerce trading floors and social networks.

The Drug Administration has issued four official dispatches transferring violation records to competent authorities to prevent and handle administrative violations.

The Department has also handled 3 cosmetic products in circulation with labels stating uses that are inconsistent with the published records, and coordinated with media agencies to verify and provide information on cases of cosmetic advertising that are misleading as drugs.

There are still difficulties in checking and post-checking cosmetics.

Regarding inspection and post-inspection of cosmetics, the report clearly stated that there are still many difficulties. Accordingly, post-inspection of cosmetics according to the ASEAN Cosmetics Agreement requires increased inspection and examination, but resources at the central and local levels are still lacking, and some health departments do not have specialized staff.

Meanwhile, e-commerce platforms are managed by the Department of E-commerce and Digital Economy (Ministry of Industry and Trade).

Electronic information pages and electronic social networking platforms are managed by the Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism). There is no coordination mechanism between management agencies.

This form of business causes difficulties in managing and monitoring the safety, quality, and origin of goods in general and cosmetics in particular.

Cosmetic manufacturing enterprises are mainly small and medium-sized, facing difficulties in applying CGMP-ASEAN standards, lacking investment in human resources and equipment. Enterprises’ awareness of complying with the law and consumers’ knowledge of safe use of cosmetics are still limited.

Regarding solutions, Minister Dao Hong Lan said the Ministry of Health is urgently developing a decree on cosmetics management, expected to be submitted to the Government in September this year, to complete the legal framework.

At the same time, deploy synchronous cosmetic management software from the central to local levels, support receiving and handling cosmetic declarations and connect with the National Public Service Portal to trace origins.

Strengthen coordination with relevant agencies to combat counterfeit goods and commercial fraud on e-commerce platforms and social networks.

Many establishments producing and trading functional foods were fined.

Regarding functional foods, according to Minister Dao Hong Lan, the Food Safety Department has issued a plan to carry out post-inspection work, focusing on inspecting functional food products under the management authority of the Ministry of Health.

The Ministry also issued an official dispatch on strengthening inspection, examination and handling of violations of food safety.

From January 1 to April 14, 2025, the Ministry of Health (Department of Food Safety) fined 5 establishments producing and trading functional foods for 7 violations, with a total fine of nearly 370 million VND.

In the coming time, the ministry will continue to direct the strengthening of management of business activities on e-commerce sites, trading floors, and social networks; coordinate with relevant ministries and branches to deploy specific solutions to coordinate in handling violations of food safety.

In addition, information technology will be applied to promptly warn of unsafe food and publicly disclose violating establishments so that people know...

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/bo-truong-dao-hong-lan-bao-cao-quoc-hoi-ve-loi-hua-quan-ly-my-pham-thuc-pham-chuc-nang-20250503090521405.htm