Vietnam: How to write ingredients and ingredient quantities on goods labels

According to Decree No. 43/2017/NĐ-CP of Vietnam’s Government, ingredients and ingredient quantities shall be presented as follows:

1. If the names of ingredients are shown on labels of goods for the purpose of attracting attention to the goods, the quantities of such ingredients must be shown, except for the case where an additive is used for giving color, fragrance, flavor which are enclosed with the name of the goods, its quantity is not required to be presented.

2. Depending on the nature and state of goods, ingredient quantity shown may be the weight of such ingredients per unit of product or one of these ratios: weight to weight; weight to volume; volume to volume; percentage of weight; or percentage of volume.

If quantities of the goods' ingredients are expressed as units of measurement, the quantities shall be presented in accordance with Vietnam's law.

3. For certain kinds of goods, ingredients and ingredient quantities shall be presented as follows:

- For foodstuffs, their ingredients must be listed in descending order predominance by weight: For additives, the name of the category of additives and the name of the additive and International Numbering System - INS (if any) must be presented; for additives which are flavorings, sweeteners or colorings, apart from the above-mentioned contents, whether such additives are “natural”, “nature-identical”, “synthetic”, or “artificial” must be listed;

- For drugs for human use, vaccines, medical bio-products, biologicals, veterinary drugs and plant protection drugs, the ingredients and content of active elements must be shown;

- For cosmetics, their ingredients, including additives, must be shown;

- For domestic metal appliances and articles created from a principal material which determines their usage value, the names of ingredients of the principal material shall be shown together with the name of the goods but the goods’ ingredients or ingredient quantities are not required to be shown.

4. Ingredients or ingredient quantities of goods which are presented in ways different from those stipulated in Clause 3 of this Article are included in Appendix IV to this Decree.

These contents are specified in Decree No. 43/2017/NĐ-CP of Vietnam’s Government, effective from June 01, 2017.

- Ngoc Duyen -

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