HOW TO REGISTER ADVERTISING CONTENT FOR HEALTH SUPPLEMENTS IN VIETNAM?

The health supplement business is a conditional business according to the law. Customers who trade in dietary supplements must have a Food Safety Hygiene Paper and a product quality declaration before they can be circulated on the market. Besides, the business is often associated with advertising to popularize the company's brand and products. Health foods are no exception. However, advertising healthy food is not like other products. For health foods, you must have a certificate of advertising content signed by the Director of the Food Safety Department (which we often call an advertising license) to be allowed to advertise. products on the market. In this article, Doanh Tri will provide the process to register advertising content for health supplements in Vietnam.
I. Legal Basis
- Law on Advertising 2012;
- Law on Food Safety 2010;
- Decree 181/2013/ND-CP on the elaboration of some articles of the law on advertising;
- Decree 15/2018 elaboration of some articles of the law of food safety;
- Circular 09/2015 stipulating the approval for contents of advertisements for special products, commodities, and services under the authority of the ministry of health.

II. General provisions
1. Conditions for Advertising Health Supplement
The advertised health protection food must be the product that has been granted the Product Marketing Registration by the Food Safety Department according to the provisions of the Food Safety Law and Decree 15/2018 of the Government.
Before advertising the product, the advertising organization must register the advertising content with the agency that issues the certificate of receipt of the product announcement registration in accordance with current regulations.
2. Guidelines for health supplement advertising content
- Advertising content must be consistent with the use in the product marketing registration
- Advertising content must have the following basic contents: name of the food; name and address of the trader putting the product on the market; main effects and side effects of the product (if any)
- Advertising content must not use images, equipment, costumes, names, letters of medical units, facilities, doctors, pharmacists, medical staff, thank you letters from patients, articles by doctors, pharmacists, medical staff. Do not advertise health foods that mislead the product as a drug
- In the advertising content, there must be the warning "This food is not a medicine and does not have the effect of replacing medicine". Advertisements in audio and video newspapers must clearly read the recommendations, if the advertising is in other means, the recommendations must be presented in clear writing with a color contrasting with the background color.

3. Mandatory content for dietary supplements
- Product's name;
- Origin of goods, name, and address of manufacturer and importer;
- Effects of the product (if any);
- Warnings when using the product (if any);
- Instructions for use, instructions for preservation.
III. Process to register advertising content for health supplement
1. Dossiers for application for a license to advertise health supplement
According to the provisions of Clause 4, Article 27 of Decree 15/2018/ND-CP, an application for a license to advertise health foods includes:
- Application for confirmation of advertising content;
- A written receipt for registration of the product announcement and the product announcement certified by a competent authority (a copy certified by the organization or individual);
- Sample of product label (copy certified by organization or individual);
- For advertisements in audio and video newspapers, there must be a script to be advertised and the content to be advertised in a video or audio disc; for advertising on other means, there must be a map (sample of content) to be advertised (a copy certified by the organization or individual);
- For advertising content other than the uses and features of the product stated in the product announcement, there must be scientific documents to prove it (a copy certified by the organization or individual);
- Documents in the application for certification of advertising content must be in Vietnamese; if there are documents in foreign languages, they must be translated into Vietnamese and notarized.

2. Procedures for applying for a license to advertise health supplement
- Organizations and individuals with advertising products shall submit their application for a license to advertise functional foods to the Food Safety Department - the Ministry of Health;
- Within 10 working days from the date of receipt of complete and valid dossiers, the dossier-receiving agency shall consider the dossiers and return the results. This time limit is counted from the date of arrival stamp of the receiving agency if the dossier is sent by post or the date the complete dossier is received on the online public service system;
- In case of disagreeing with the advertising contents of the organization or individual or requesting amendments or supplements, the dossier-receiving agency must make a written statement clearly stating the reasons and legal grounds for the request. The application-receiving agency may only request amendments and supplements once;
- Within 10 working days after receiving the revised or supplemented dossier, the dossier-receiving agency shall appraise the dossier and give a written reply. After 90 working days from the date of receipt of a written request for amendment and supplementation, if the organization or individual does not amend or supplement the dossier, the dossier is no longer valid.

The above information is about the ‘How to register advertising content for health supplements in Vietnam?' For more information and advice on this issue, please contact Doanh Tri Law Firm directly via:
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