The fishery enterprises propose the amendment of regulation on conformity and food safety

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Seafood exports are processed. Photo: T.H.

According to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers, Government’s Decree 38/2012 / ND-CP of 25^th April 2012 stipulated the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Food Safety, which was controversial because there were many inadequacies not only for businesses in the fisheries industry but also other food sectors. In particular, the biggest inadequacy, making it difficult for enterprises is the procedure of announcement of conformity and food safety regulations.

The procedure for issuing a certificate of conformity in accordance with food safety has created difficulties for organizations and individuals. According to Clause 4, Article 4, Decree No. 38/2012 / ND-CP, 15 -working day waiting to be issued a "certificate" created a "sub-license" for organizations and individuals, contrary to the spirit of decreasing regulations and administrative procedures in the current period.

Moreover, the current food safety management practices of many countries in the world (EU, USA, Japan ...) do not have a similar approach with Vietnam and countries only implement state management based on 3 main activities, including a review of production conditions, sampling analysis, and inspections.

VASEP said that in accordance with the Government's policy and the Ministry of Health affirmation, the amendment of Decree 38 in the direction of abolishing the food safety declaration was necessary and should be applied immediately.

However, the draft Decree revising Decree 38/2012 (Draft Decree) basically does not address issues, which were mentioned in the Resolution 19 / NQ-CP. In the near future, there are some basic points to revise in the draft Decree:

Accordingly, it is proposed to deregulate the "Regulations on food safety", because there are no such regulations in the food safety law. Because of Decree 38, the Ministry of Health in particular, and competent agencies, in general, do not build the necessary standards. Because there are no standard procedures which are transparent, there have been a lot of difficulties for businesses.

Specifically, the fisheries enterprises proposed to abolish Clause 2, Article 3 (products without technical regulations must be announced in accordance with food safety regulations); Clause 4, Clause 5 of Article 4 and regulations on announcement and certification of conformity dossiers in other clauses of Article 4; annul Article 6 (dossiers of conformity announcement on food safety for products not subject to technical regulations); remove “declaration of conformity of food safety regulations" in Articles 7, 8 and Clause 2 of Article 20.

As reflected by enterprises, the process which takes much time is the testing. According to the draft decree, enterprises still have to carry out testing at designated laboratories. That is, basically, as the same as the announcement of conformity.

Thus, enterprises proposed that in the case where enterprises self-published, they can decide whether they apply testing or not. According to the current regulations, each shipment of imports must be subject to specialized inspections, in which animal products or animal products are subjected to two types of inspections, including veterinary quarantine and food safety inspections. This rule is too complicated, unnecessarily and expensive for businesses.

While not revising the Law on Food Safety, based on the requirements of Resolution 19 on the application of risk management and preferential business in the management and inspections of imported and exported goods, it is proposed to add Clause 2 ( Article 14 of Decree No. 38 is amended as follows: Exemption from inspection for products that meet the following criteria: announcing technical regulation, having a good history of compliance with the law on food safety and hygiene, there are no signs or information on food safety risks. The inspection is carried out at the stage of circulation.

Exemption from inspections or non-inspections at the Customs clearance stage, inspections at the stage of circulation for deep-processed products and industrial packing.

Specifying the 3 testing methods. At the same time, the conditions and procedures for inspection procedures have been simplified so that many items have been inspected (at present, the procedure is very complex, few goods are applied and the time is too short).

It is proposed to add Article 15 with the following provisions: Application of inspection regime at the source (check the stage of aquaculture and processing in the country of production and the country of export). This mode applies to enterprises with a high demand and must pay for inspections.

Regarding overlapping management issues, according to VASEP, at present, most food products are under the management of more than one Ministry (especially the food safety inspections by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development).

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It is proposed that if an item which is subject to quarantine and food safety inspections, it must be quarantined by the quarantine agency.