Functional food advertisement registration service

Advertising is an activity of businesses to introduce products and services to customers. Nowadays, the advertising needs of businesses are increasing. Functional foods are one of the most advertised products on the market. However, unlike other products and services, advertising of functional foods must meet certain conditions. Preparing documents to register to advertise functional foods is also more complicated than many other types of products. In this article, Viet An Law will provide you with the s Functional food advertisement registration service of Viet An Law.

Legal basis

• Law on Advertising 2012, as amended and supplemented in 2018;
• Law on Food Safety 2010, as amended and supplemented in 2018;
• Decree 15/2018/ND-CP guiding the Law on Food Safety 2010, as amended and supplemented by Decree 155/2018/ND-CP;
• Decree 181/2013/ND-CP guiding the Law on Advertising is amended and supplemented by Decree 123/2018/ND-CP.
• Circular 09/2015/TT-BYT regulating the confirmation of advertising content for special products, goods, and services under the management of the Ministry of Health, as amended and supplemented by Circular 25/2018/TT-BYT and Decree 96/2023/ND-CP.

What are functional foods?

Functional foods, or dietary supplements, are foods used to support the functions of the human body, create a comfortable state, and boost immunity against diseases. Functional foods include dietary supplements, health protection foods, and medical nutritional foods.

Functional foods must ensure the following safety conditions:

• Comply with general conditions for ensuring food safety;
• Have scientific information and documents proving the effects of their ingredients that create the announced functions;
• Functional foods which are first put on market sale must have a report on testing of their effect.

Regarding product labels, for functional foods, product labels must meet the following conditions:

• Organizations and individuals producing and importing functional foods in Vietnam must carry out food labeling according to regulations;
• The shelf life of food shown on their labels shall, depending on the type of food, be written as “expiry date”, “use by” or “best before”;
• The label must contain the phrase “functional food” and the effect of substituting curative medicines must not be expressed in any form.

Conditions for applying for a license to advertise functional foods

According to the provisions of Clause 4, Article 20 of the Advertising Law 2012 and Article 5 of Decree 181/2013/ND-CP, the conditions for advertising units to obtain a license to advertise functional foods are prescribed as follows: Food advertising Functional foods products must have a food hygiene, safety, and quality registration certificate or receipt of standard declaration documents from a competent state agency. At the same time, advertising content must meet the following conditions:

• Advertising content for food and food additives must be consistent with the Receipt of the Declaration of Conformity or Certificate of Compliance with Food Safety Regulations.
• There must be the following contents:
• Name of functional food;
• Name and address of the organization or individual responsible for bringing the product to market.
• Advertising of functional foods must comply with the following regulations and contents:
• Primary and secondary effects;
• The text or announcement: “This product is not a medicine and is not a substitute for medicines”;
• Do not advertise functional foods in a way that causes people to confuse them with medicines.
• Advertising of functional foods in audio and video newspapers must be spoken the content according to regulations.

Note: Advertising of functional foods can only be done after confirmation of the advertising content by a competent state agency.

Application for a certification of functional foods advertisement content

An application file for a Certificate of functional food advertisement content includes the following components:

• Application for confirmation of advertisement content;
• The certificate of registered product declaration and the product declaration certified by a competent authority (a copy certified by the applicant);
• Product label samples certified by the applicant;
• For audio and video advertisement, a disc that contains the advertisement script; For other types of advertisement, a maquette (certified by the applicant);
• The uses or effects other than those written in the product declaration must be proven by scientific documents (copies certified by the applicant).

Note:

• Documents in the registration application for confirmation of advertising content must be presented in Vietnamese language;
• If there are documents in a foreign language, they must be translated into Vietnamese language and notarized.

Procedures for applying for a certification of advertisement content

Procedures for applying for a Certificate of functional food advertisement content comply with the provisions of Article 27 of Decree 15/2018/ND-CP as follows:

Step 1: Submit application

• The person applying for an advertising license must prepare a full set of documents according to regulations;
• Apply for registration of confirmation of advertising content to the agency that issues the Certificate of registered product declaration;

Step 2: The receiving agency reviews the documents and returns the results

• Within 10 working days from the date of receipt of complete and valid documents, the receiving agency shall review the documents and return the results. This time limit is calculated from the date the application is stamped by the receiving agency (if the application is sent by post) or the date the complete application is received on the online public service system.
• If the receiving agency does not agree with the advertising content or requests amendments or supplements, there must be a document clearly stating the reason and legal basis for the request. The receiving agency may request amendments and supplements one time.
• Within 10 working days from receipt of the amended or supplemented dossier, the receiving agency will evaluate the dossier and issue a written response. After 90 working days from the date of the official dispatch requesting amendments and supplements, if the organization or individual does not amend or supplement, the application will be invalidated.
• The agency receiving registration dossiers shall post the names and products of organizations and individuals that have been granted a Certificate of Food Product Advertisement Content on its website and food safety database.

Authorization certificate of functional foods advertisement content

According to the provisions of Decree 15/2018/ND-CP, the agency competent to issue the Certificate of registered product declaration is also the agency competent to issue certificate of advertisement content, specifically:

• Dietary supplements, mixed food additives with new uses, food additives not yet on the list of additives allowed for use in food: Ministry of Health;
• Medical nutritional foods, foods for dietary uses, and dietary products for children up to 36 months: competent state management agencies appointed by the Provincial People’s Committee;
• If producing many types of food under the authority to receive product declaration registration applications from both the Ministry of Health and the competent state management agency designated by the Provincial People’s Committee, the application may be submitted to either receiving authority.
• If two or more production facilities are producing the same product, submit it to a local state management agency with a production facility selected by the applicant (except for products registered at the Ministry of Health).

Procedure for registering functional food advertising at Viet An Law

The functional food advertising registration service of Viet An Law is conduct as follows:

• Step 1: Clients contact Viet An Law Firm and provide information related to their need to use the service;
• Step 2: Viet An Law receives requests and information about the client’s need to register for functional food advertising, and notifies the customer of legal service fees;
• Step 3: The two parties sign a legal service contract on registration of functional food advertising;
• Step 3: Consulting on documents and procedures for registering functional food advertising, listing the list of papers and documents that customers need to provide to Viet An Law to complete the application;
• Step 4: Customer representative submits documents to the competent authority and monitors documents throughout the processing process;
• Step 6: Receive the Certificate of functional food advertisement content and hand it over to the clients;
• Step 7: Support procedures after registering to advertise functional foods.

Why should you choose Viet An Luat’s functional food advertisement content registration service?

Currently, individuals and businesses can carry out the registration procedures for advertising functional foods. However, the process of preparing documents and carrying out registration procedures will take a lot of time and effort. In cases where individuals and businesses do not prepare complete documents, they will have to spend more time making amendments and supplements.

Therefore, to save time and effort, individuals and businesses can choose to use the translation provided by Viet An Law. When choosing to use services at Viet An Law, customers will be fully advised on information and legal regulations related to the registration of functional food advertisement content.

At the same time, Viet An Law will also support customers in fully preparing documents and documents to carry out procedures for applying for an advertising certification. This makes the permit application process efficient and quick.

When using our services, Viet An Law will perform related tasks on behalf of clients, who only need to support Viet An Law team to provide necessary documents and records and receive results.

Certification of functional food advertisement content service at Viet An Law Firm

• Consulting on regulations related to functional food advertising;
• Advise customers to prepare registration documents according to regulations;
• representative applies for registration of functional food advertising;
• Other legal services upon client request.

Clients who need advice on functional food advertisement registration service, please contact Viet An Law Firm to receive the best support from our team of lawyers !