The Vietnam SPS Office received a notification from the European Union (EU) Food and Feed Safety Notification System regarding Vietnamese exported plant-origin products that violated food safety regulations.

Accordingly, Vietnamese cinnamon, ground cinnamon, organic chili powder and chili products have been warned by some EU countries for violating food safety.

The Vietnam Pepper and Spice Association recommends that agricultural and food products imported into the EU must strictly comply with the food safety regulations of this market.

This includes testing for pesticide residues, preservatives, and other additives in the product.

Enterprises need to conduct periodic analysis and testing on products to ensure that there are no pesticide residues or other chemicals exceeding the prescribed level. This not only helps enterprises improve their reputation and product quality but also facilitates access to and expansion of international markets.

The Vietnam Pepper and Spice Association informed businesses to pay attention to checking product quality before exporting.

Recently, the EU decided to increase the frequency and tighten inspections on chili and dragon fruit exported from Vietnam. This is bad news for the above two products as well as Vietnamese agricultural products in this rich market.

Specifically, the Vietnam Trade Office in Belgium and the EU said that the EU has increased the frequency of border inspections for dragon fruit from 20% to 30%, and the shipments are accompanied by a Food Safety Certificate and analysis results of pesticide residues in the product (Dragon fruit is still in Appendix II of the Regulation and the inspection frequency has increased from 20% to 30%).

Chili products currently subject to EU Annex I (inspection frequency is 50%) are transferred to Annex II of Regulation 2019/1973 with an inspection frequency of 50%, and are accompanied by a Food Safety Certificate and analysis results of pesticide residues in the product.