Making public the quality of a product is a priority for businesses before they launch their products on to the market. It is also considered a way to simplify administrative procedures for businesses.

Vietnam has already issued legally binding regulations by way of a crosscheck mechanism, and businesses have to accept responsibility for any misdemeanours or deceptions if caught out by State management agencies. However, this mechanism and the responsibility shown by these agencies has not been given due attention.

To market their products, businesses have to apply to State management agencies for a licence and then have their products examined and certified in terms of quality, brand and design. But it is very difficult for the agencies to determine whether businesses fulfil their commitments or not.  

In fact, many unsafe products of unknown origin, especially foodstuffs, have been circulated on the market, affecting the healthy development of the national economy as well as consumers’ rights and health. Management agencies usually only get down to re-examining businesses’ claims after complaints are made by the public or the media.

After coming to a conclusion, the products have already been used by consumers, and it is impossible to return them.

The Chinese milk that contained melamine – a substance that can cause kidney stones in children - is a case in point. When the substance was first detected last year, the milk had already been sold to many consumers throughout Vietnam. After this case, the national food hygiene and safety administration and the relevant agencies examined other milk products and foodstuffs and discovered many other sub-standards. Most recently, low-nutrition milk products were also found on the market.

A survey jointly conducted by the Vietnamese consumers’ protection and health agencies in October 2008 showed that 50 percent of the milk samples taken did not meet nutritional requirements and 30 percent had very low volumes of protein.

Though the survey was conducted on only 10 milk products, it sounded the alarm about the quality of 120 milk products currently circulating on the market. It also pointed to the poor management capacity of some State agencies during the whole process, from the granting of license to examinations of a product’s quality.

There is no doubt that consumers will continue to fall victim to poor quality products if there is no change in the current management mechanism. To protect consumers’ rights, State management agencies have no choice but to enhance the inspection of products in circulation, especially food and foodstuffs.

A central steering committee to combat smuggling, counterfeit goods and trade fraud has been established under the Prime Minister’s decision No 121. The committee will work closely with the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Public Security and other relevant ministries to conduct frequent market inspections and hand out appropriate fines as a deterrent measure to businesses involved in producing counterfeit and bad quality goods, as well as trade fraud.

Their first and foremost task now is to deal with products of unknown origin, including pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and high-risk groups of foodstuffs that have a direct impact on the health of consumers.