The Vietnamese government initially announced it would be enforcing new food safety regulations in January 26 this year. Locally dubbed ‘Decree 46’, it focuses on the detailed procedures to implement new changes to the local Law on Food Safety, and aimed to put stricter inspections and tighter food safety into place.
This however ended in nothing short of chaos, with local media reporting mammoth delays and trade disruptions that saw thousands of containers being stuck at ports or stranded across Vietnam.
This was compounded by ill-prepared infrastructure to support the change, with the laboratories and staff charged with performing food safety testing unable to turnover in time, resulting in all manner of food products forced to be held for extended periods of time.
Food businesses came right out to accuse the enforcement of causing near-complete paralysis of the local food system, calling it far too abrupt and lacking in clear instructions — This led the government, specifically the Vietnamese Food Administration (VFA) under the Ministry of Health, to halt all changes until April 15 to conduct a review and allow businesses time to transition.
After a couple of months, VFA launched a new draft framework for the local Law on Food Safety on March 26 which it claimed to have incorporated feedback from ‘ministries, departments, and agencies of provinces and cities; associations and relevant businesses’ at a meeting held a day earlier.
The draft was opened up for public comment on March 27 — but all parties were only given until March 31 to send in any comments.
“[VFA and the] Ministry of Health are resubmitting the draft policy framework of the Law on Food Safety after incorporating feedback from [all parities], and are requesting for comments as well as for the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, and the Ministry of Finance to add investment incentives for the development of [Vietnam’s] food supply chain,” Deputy Minister of Health Do Xuan Tuyen said via a formal letter to the public.
“All comments and suggestions must be sent to the Ministry of Health (Food Safety Department) before 5:00 PM on March 31 2026 for compilation, either via written document or email.”
Decentralisation demands
In addition to Decree 46, there are other formal amendments expected to the Law on Food Safety. One key focus is decentralisation of management, where VFA is clearly looking to move the onus of ensuring food safety from a central ministry to other ministries as well as local authorities in order to enhance the latter’s roles in the supply chain.
“The Ministry of Health would be responsible to implement food safety management for food additives, food processing aids, bottled drinking water, natural mineral water, functional foods and other [prepared] foods, whereas the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment would take chare of [agricultural products such as] cereals, meat, seafood, vegetables, fruits, eggs, raw milk, honey, GM foods, and other agricultural food products,” the draft stated.
“The Ministry of Industry and Trade would manage food safety for alcoholic beverages, beer, soft drinks, processed milk, vegetable oils, processed flour and starch products; whereas [local authorities] must manage food safety for small companies, foodservice and markets within their localities.”
The ministry has stated the aim of this change is to ‘maximise the specialised expertise of each sector’ without too much of a financial burden.
“This will help to leverage existing management systems, helping the government save huge initial investment costs,” VFA stated.
“In addition, decentralization and delegation of authority to localities will enhance the role of local governments in food safety management [while] avoiding causing major disruption in the political system.”
Calls for investment
VFA is also attempting to rope in other ministries as well as external investors to contribute to incentive policies that would spur advanced food safety and food production technology development, as Do mentioned.
“The plan is to provide incentives for organizations and individuals investing in fields related to food safety, where they will enjoy additional support such as for the interest rates on loans, or five-year exemptions or reductions of enterprise income tax,” the draft stated.
“This would cover facility or equipment purchases for R&D; food production according to advanced processes such as Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), HACCP, ISO 22000 or equivalent; technology transfers from developed countries such as fermentation, protein substitutes, or functional ingredients; building centralised cold chain systems and other science-based developments.”
Is the April 15 deadline still in play?
Given the level of controversy that was wrought by Decree 46, it is likely that Vietnam will be much more cautious moving forward.
No formal retraction of the April 15 deadline has been made, and if so by April 16 food firms would be subject to tighter inspections that cover mandatory registrations and document checks, physical inspections, lab testing for imported food and other such processes, which would be a shift away from the current self-declaration process in place for many products.
That said, a high-level meeting in mid-March chaired by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh placed the Ministry of Health fully in charge of solving the current issues — and crucially, no mention was made of the April 15 deadline.
“The suspension of [Decree 46] will be extended until full amendments of the Law on Food Safety and its guiding decree enter into force,” meeting vice chairman Do Ngoc Huynh said after the session.
“The Ministry of Health shall also assume the prime responsibility for, and cooperate with others, to develop and finalise the amendments to the Law on Food Safety as well as prepare the necessary conditions for its implementation.”
The wider overhaul of the Law on Food Safety is expected to be submitted for government approval near the end of 2026, so if status quo is maintained until then, food companies will have a much longer transition time.
