On 14th, September 2018, the Ministry of Health issued Circular No. 23/2018/ TT-BYT regulating the withdrawal and handling of unsafe food under the management of the Ministry of Health. This Circular takes effect on 1st, November 2018.
Accordingly, Circular No.23/2018/TT-BYT has the following main contents:
1. Unsafe food can be withdraw in case:
– Voluntary withdraw means the withdrawal of products performed by organizations or individuals that declare or self-declare of products (product owners), voluntarily perform when detecting or receiving feedback on unsafe food produced by organizations and/or individuals and not in cases of compulsory withdrawal.
– Compulsory withdraw means that the owner withdraw unsafe food following decision of Authorities, including: The Authorities receiving the dossier of self-declare or granting the certificate following regulation of Decree No. 15/2018/ND-CP dated 2, February 2018 detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Food Safety; Agencies competent to sanction administrative violations in food safety following the regulation of law.
2. Withdrawn products shall be handled in one of the following case:
– Overcoming labeling errors: apply to products violating labeling regulations compared to self-declaration dossiers or dossiers of applying for declaration.
– Change of using purposes: apply to the violating products threaten to affect consumers’s health, which can not be used in food field but may be used in other fields;
– Re-export: apply to imported products of high quality and safety limits which are incompatible with self-declaration dossiers or dossiers of applying for declaration which affect the health of consumers harmfully
– Destruction: apply to products with quality norms or safety limits are incompatible with dossiers of self-declaration or dossiers of applying for declaration which affect the health of consumers harmfully or can not change the purpose of use or re-export according to the above provisions.
In summary, Promulgating Circular No. 23/2018/TT-BYT will create a clear and specific provisions on withdrawn and handling of unsafe foods under the Ministry of Health’s management and overcome the weaknesses in the past.