What acts violate the advertising of functional foods?

With 5 years of establishment and development, Nanofrance has produced hundreds of different health protection food products that are currently available on the market. And these hundreds of products are not only guaranteed to be of the best quality but also fully published according to legal regulations, including product declaration and product advertising acceptance certificate. One of the points that helps Nanofrance differentiate itself from poor quality and unknown origin products on the market. Currently, there are many health protection food products that violate special regulations on product advertising such as advertising that does not match the published content, false advertising, advertising functional foods as drugs, causing confusion for consumers.

According to the Ministry of Health, the cause of the above violations is that some organizations and individuals have functional food products that disregard the provisions of the law, violate advertising regulations, especially on social networking sites for profit. Some advertising agencies receive sponsorship from businesses with advertising products to publish advertisements that do not match the product's uses. Professional agencies also have difficulty handling violations, especially on social networking sites.

According to the Ministry of Health, legal regulations on the management of advertising activities for functional foods have been stipulated in the Law on Food Safety, the Law on Advertising, 4 Government Decrees and a number of circulars guiding advertising management. These documents clearly stipulate: Before advertising, the person with the advertising functional food product must submit the expected advertising content for review by the health authority.

In addition, advertisers ( newspapers, radio, social networks, websites, e-commerce platforms, printers, publishers, etc. ) are only allowed to publish advertisements with approved content; do not use images, names, or reputations of medical staff, medical facilities, or thank-you letters from patients to advertise functional foods; and prohibit advertising functional foods that can replace medicine.

In order to implement the above regulations, the Ministry of Health has assigned the Food Safety Department to manage and appraise the content of health food advertisements. The Food Safety Department has started receiving and appraising applications for registration of advertising content confirmation via the level 4 online public service system.

Violations of food advertising and functional food advertising will be administratively handled, specifically:

1. Fines from 30,000,000 VND to 40,000,000 VND for the act of: "Advertising functional foods and non-medicinal products with unclear content that causes misunderstanding that the product is medicine".

Pursuant to Point a, Clause 4, Article 68 of Decree 158/2013/ND-CP dated November 12, 2013, Stipulating administrative sanctions for violations in the fields of culture, sports, tourism and advertising.

2. Fines from VND 15,000,000 to VND 20,000,000 for the act of: "Advertising special products, goods and services without having the content confirmed by a competent state agency before advertising as prescribed".

Pursuant to Clause 1, Article 67 of Decree 158/2013/ND-CP dated November 12, 2013, stipulating administrative sanctions for violations in the fields of culture, sports, tourism and advertising, as amended by Decree 28/2017/ND-CP dated March 20, 2017.

3. A fine of from VND 20,000,000 to VND 30,000,000 shall be imposed for one of the following acts:
4. a) Advertising food in the form of articles by doctors, pharmacists, and medical staff describing food as having therapeutic effects; using images, reputations, and correspondence of medical units, facilities, medical staff, and thank-you letters from patients to advertise food;
5. b) Advertising functional foods that are misleading in their effects as medicines.

Pursuant to Clause 4, Article 70 of Decree 158/2013/ND-CP dated November 12, 2013, regulating administrative sanctions in the fields of culture, sports, tourism and advertising, as amended by Decree 28/2017/ND-CP dated March 20, 2017.

4. Fines from VND 5,000,000 to VND 10,000,000 for the act of: "advertising health protection foods without the warning content "This food is not a medicine, does not have the effect of replacing medicine to treat diseases"."

Pursuant to Article 23, Clause 1, Decree 115/2018/ND-CP dated September 4, 2018 of the Government on administrative sanctions for violations of food safety.

5. Fines from 40,000,000 VND to 50,000,000 VND for the act of "Advertising breast milk substitutes for children under 24 months old, nutritional supplements for children under 6 months old, feeding bottles and artificial nipples"

Pursuant to Point c Clause 1 Article 50 Decree 158/2013/ND-CP dated November 12, 2013 Stipulating administrative sanctions for violations in the fields of culture, sports, tourism and advertising.

With the concept of living and working in accordance with the law, Nanofrance always takes the lead in fully implementing the above regulations for all products manufactured at the factory. Nanofrance is proud to always receive the absolute trust of customers and authorities.