VietNamNet Bridge - Under the new regulation released by the Ministry of Science & Technology (MST),  agencies, during inspections, have the right to seize products and stop production of enterprises if they discover violations in product quality. 

Vietnam has tightened the control over product quality

The representative of a business in Hanoi complained that risks for food companies are high as agencies have the right to close production shops and seize products if tests show problems in quality.

He said the regulation will ‘kill’ businesses, because it doesn’t allow businesses to claim innocence.

“All defendants have the right to plead for them. But under the regulation, businesses don’t have the right. The seizure will be valid soon after inspectors have first-time testing results. It’s quite unreasonable,” he said. 

Vu Quoc Tuan from the Nutritional Foods Group (NFG) under EuroCham said at a conference on the government’s Resolution 19 on administration reform in mid-June that it was unreasonable.

According to Tuan, in Circular 26/2012, MST stipulated that businesses had the right to have their product samples tested at other laboratories which can meet the standards set by management agencies, if they do not agree with the first-time test results provided by appropriate agencies. Businesses have to pay for the tests.

However, the provision has been amended. In a new legal document, inspectors have the right to stop production immediately after first-time tests.

Tuan commented that the regulation is ‘dangerous’ to enterprises. The Danlait goat milk incident is a typical example. 

Soon after news appeared in social media that the protein proportion in the milk found by Pasteur Institute was 3 percent instead of 13 percent as declared by the producer, the market management agency sent staff to the company and sealed off the products.

However, just days later, another laboratory gave a different result: the proportion of protein in the milk was higher than 13 percent, i.e. the producer’s declaration was true. Later, Pasteur Institute admitted that it applied a wrong testing method.

As such, the fault was made by a testing laboratory, but it was the enterprise which suffered from another’s fault.

“If the state did not allow enterprises to have their products tested again if they don’t agree with the conclusions of inspection agencies, enterprises will go bankrupt, because they don’t know to whom to complain and who will compensate for damages they incur,” Tuan said.

Nguyen Thi Hong Minh, chair of the Food Transparency Association (AFT), pointed out that the agriculture ministry has many regulations which affect business operations. 

But the management of the agency is loose. It grants certificates on fertilizer quality, but counterfeit fertilizers exist everywhere.

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