Deputy Minister Truong Thanh Hoai: Putting people's health first when developing standards for vegetable oil

Creating a solid corridor for vegetable oil quality management

On the afternoon of October 3, the Ministry of Industry and Trade held a workshop to provide comments on the draft "Circular promulgating National Technical Regulations on Refined Vegetable Oil". Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Truong Thanh Hoai attended and directed the workshop.

The workshop was attended by units under the Ministry of Industry and Trade: Department of Innovation, Green Transformation and Industrial Promotion, Ministry Office, Department of Industry, Department of Domestic Market Management and Development, Department of Import and Export, Department of Trade Defense, Department of Chemicals, National Competition Commission, Department of E-commerce and Digital Economy , Department of Legal Affairs.

Also attending the workshop were representatives from ministries, branches and associations such as: Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture and Environment , National Committee for Standards, Metrology and Quality, Vietnam Federation of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Protection Association, National Institute of Nutrition, universities, testing institutes... and representatives of enterprises producing and trading vegetable oil.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Truong Thanh Hoai speaks at the Workshop

Speaking at the workshop, Deputy Minister Truong Thanh Hoai said that in the context of socio-economic development and improved people's lives, standards and regulations also need to be updated and improved to keep up with development trends and approach countries in the region and the world.

The development of standards aims to ensure the harmony of interests between people, businesses, and state management agencies. In particular, the goal of ensuring people's health is the top priority.

Also according to Deputy Minister Truong Thanh Hoai, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will issue a circular on traceability of goods and products, in order to determine the origin of input materials and the movement of materials. All databases will be integrated into the national data system and consumers can also access it (to a certain extent) to serve the purpose of identifying genuine and fake goods or product testing results.

Mr. Nguyen Viet Tan, Deputy Director of the Department of Innovation, Green Transformation and Industrial Promotion, spoke at the Workshop.

Also speaking at the workshop, Mr. Nguyen Viet Tan, Deputy Director of the Department of Innovation, Green Transformation and Industrial Promotion, said that vegetable oil is one of the essential food items, present in most of people's daily meals, and is also an important raw material in the food processing industry, catering services and industrial production.

With widespread consumption and large volume, the quality of refined vegetable oil has a direct impact on people's health and the reputation of Vietnamese products.

However, for refined vegetable oils, there is still no national technical regulation as a legal basis for management. This gap limits quality control, while the requirements for food safety and people's health are increasingly high.

Therefore, the issuance of national technical regulations on refined vegetable oils is an urgent requirement to ensure safety for public health; improve product quality, meet domestic consumption needs; create transparency and fairness in production and business activities; harmonize with international and regional regulations, support integration and enhance competitiveness for Vietnamese products.

“ To build a scientific, feasible and practical national technical regulation, the Ministry of Industry and Trade hopes to receive comments from management agencies, scientists, businesses and associations,” said Mr. Nguyen Viet Tan.

Mr. Nguyen Viet Tan suggested that the Workshop focus on discussing some main contents:

Firstly , evaluate the draft national technical regulations from production, business and management practices, and refer to international experience to propose contents that need to be adjusted and supplemented, ensuring strictness and feasibility.

Second, review the legal basis, ensuring consistency with the system of legal documents on food safety, trade and product quality standards, and the environment.

Third , supplement recommendations on criteria, scientific models and advanced approaches, thereby improving the quality of the draft, ensuring compatibility with regulations of countries in the region and the world.

Fourth , analyze practical issues in application, from testing, certification of conformity to market management, inspection and supervision. National technical regulations must ensure both scientific quality and practical implementation.

“Today’s workshop is an important forum for us to comprehensively review the necessity of issuing national technical regulations for refined vegetable oils. I believe that with a spirit of frankness, responsibility and science, the comments at the workshop will be a valuable basis for the Ministry of Industry and Trade to complete the draft Circular before submitting it for promulgation, contributing to improving the effectiveness of state management and protecting the legitimate rights of consumers,” Mr. Nguyen Viet Tan emphasized.

Experts and businesses highly appreciate the Ministry of Industry and Trade

At the workshop, representatives of the Department of Innovation, Green Transformation and Industrial Promotion presented in detail the contents of the draft "Circular promulgating National Technical Regulations on Refined Vegetable Oils" (legal basis, development process, main contents, etc.). Afterwards, representatives of ministries, branches, experts, associations, and enterprises gave their opinions on the contents of the draft.

Mr. Le Thanh Hung, representative of Vietnam Standards and Quality Institute, spoke at the Workshop.

Giving comments at the Workshop, Mr. Le Thanh Hung, representative of the Vietnam Institute of Standards and Quality, highly appreciated the efforts of the Drafting Committee in issuing regulations on management of refined vegetable oil products.

Regarding the procedure for certifying product conformity, Mr. Dang Thanh Tung - National Committee for Standards, Metrology and Quality said that the drafting committee needs to specify the method of conformity assessment to facilitate business application.

“There are currently many assessment methods in the guiding decree of the Ministry of Science and Technology, so it is necessary to consider choosing the most suitable method for refined vegetable oil products. For the appendix of testing methods, the drafting committee should also specify which is the referee method in case there are many testing methods,” Mr. Tung suggested.

From a business perspective, a representative of Cai Lan Vegetable Oil Company Limited also highly appreciated the Ministry of Industry and Trade's leadership in drafting the National Technical Regulation on refined vegetable oil.

“This document is extremely important, creating a unified legal basis for the production, trading, import and quality management of vegetable oils in Vietnam. We highly appreciate the efforts of the drafting committee in developing this standard,” said a representative of Cai Lan Vegetable Oil Company Limited.

The representative of this company also suggested that currently, some ministries have issued documents related to the certification of conformity and labeling of products and goods. Therefore, the drafting committee needs to consider building regulations in the standards to be synchronized and achieve the highest management efficiency.

Conference scene

Concluding the workshop, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Truong Thanh Hoai said that the Ministry of Industry and Trade appreciates the contributions from ministries, branches, experts, associations and enterprises. The Ministry of Industry and Trade will, through the focal unit, synthesize the contributions, provide specific explanations and soon complete the draft circular, and continue to collect public opinions at the following workshop programs.

Source: https://moit.gov.vn/tin-tuc/hoat-dong/hoat-dong-cua-lanh-dao-bo/thu-truong-truong-thanh-hoai-dat-suc-khoe-nguoi-dan-len-hang-dau-khi-xay-quy-chuan-cho-dau-thuc-vat.html

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