Vietnam: Is bottled water required to have a shelf life on the water bottle label? What is the shelf life of the goods?
Is bottled water required to have a shelf life on the water bottle label in Vietnam?
According to the provisions of Article 10 of Decree 43/2017/ND-CP, amended by Clause 5 Article 1 of Decree 111/2021/ND-CP on mandatory contents shown on goods labels as follows:
Article 10. Mandatory information on labels
1. Goods label of goods circulated in Vietnam shall present the following contents in Vietnamese language:
a) Name of the goods;
b) Name and address of the entity responsible for the goods (hereinafter referred to as "responsible entity");
c) Origins of goods; In case of unknown origin of good, the country in which the last stage of finishing the goods is performed;
d) Other mandatory information shall be displayed on the label according to the characteristics of the goods prescribed in Appendix I issued together with this Decree and relevant regulations.
If the goods have the characteristics of multiple categories in the Appendix I issued together with this Decree and not governed by any other relevant legislative documents, the responsible for entity shall, according to the primary use of the goods, determine the suitable category of goods and include information accordingly. If the surface area of the goods is not enough for all mandatory information on the label, the information prescribed in Points a, b, and c Clause 1 of this Article shall be given priority, the information prescribed in Point d Clause 1 of this Article shall be shown in the booklet of the goods. This must be specified on the label.
2. The following information on the original label of goods imported into Vietnam must be written in Vietnamese or foreign language while following customs clearance procedures:
a) Name of the goods;
c) Origin of the goods; In case of unknown origin of goods, the country from which the last stage of finishing the goods is performed;
c) The name or abbreviated name of the manufacturer or the entity responsible for the goods in the foreign country;
c1) If the original label does not contain the full name and address of the manufacturer or the responsible for entity in the foreign country, this information shall be fully presented in the attached documents of the goods;
c2) If the original labels of goods imported into Vietnam are written in a foreign language as prescribed in Points a, b, c Clause 2 of this Article, after completing the customs clearance procedure and transfer goods to storage, the importer shall add Vietnamese labels as prescribed in Clause 1 of this Article before putting such goods into circulation in domestic market.
3. Goods labels of exports shall be presented according to the law of import country.
a) Information about origins written on labels of exports shall comply with the regulations prescribed in Clause 1 Article 15 of this Decree;
b) Information on labels of exports shall comply with the regulation in Clause 2 Article 18 of this Decree;
4. The Minister of Science and Technology shall elaborate the mandatory information on labels of the goods prescribed in Point d Clause 1 of this Article on electronic media.
In Section 6, Appendix I promulgated together with Decree No. 43/2017 / ND-CP stipulates mandatory contents for beverages (except alcohol) as follows:
Appendix I promulgated together with Decree No. 43/2017 / ND-CP
Based on the above provisions, beverages will generally be required to have information about the date of manufacture and shelf life. Thus, on the label of bottled drinking water, it is mandatory to write the expiry date.
Vietnam: Is bottled water required to have a shelf life on the water bottle label? What is the shelf life of the goods?
What is the shelf life of the goods in Vietnam?
Pursuant to Article 14 of Decree 43/2017/ND-CP on production date, expiry date as follows:
Article 14. Date of manufacture, expiry date
1. Date of manufacture, expiry date shall be written in the "dd-mm-yy(yy)" format (according to solar calendar). If it is presented in another order, such date must be noted in Vietnamese.
Each number indicating the date, month, and year shall be written in two digits, the number indicating the year may particularly be written in four digits. The number indicating date, month, and year of a point of time shall be presented in the same line.
Month of manufacture, if required, shall be written in the “mm-yy(yy)” format (according to solar calendar).
Year of manufacture, if required, shall be written in the “yyyy” format (according to solar calendar).
“date of manufacture", “expiry date” shall be fully presented or abbreviated in capital letters as follows: ”NSX", “HSD” or “HD" (“MFG” or “EXP”).
2. If the date of manufacture and expiry date must be presented as prescribed in Appendix I of this Decree while the date of manufacture has been printed on the label as prescribed in Clause 1 of this Article, the permitted expiry date is the period of time beginning from the date of manufacture and otherwise the expiry date has been printed on the label, the permitted date of manufacture is the period of time before the expiry date.
3. If the goods has been portioned, extracted, refilled, or repacked, the respective date must be presented and the expiry date shall begin from the date of manufacture and be shown on the original label.
4. The presentation of date of manufacture and expiry date shall be specified in Section 1 Appendix III of this Decree.
The goods that are presented in the manners other than those prescribed in Clause 1 of this Article shall be consistent with Section 2 Appendix III of this Decree.
Accordingly, the expiry date of goods is recorded in order of days, months and years of the calendar year. In case of recording in a different order, there must be a footnote in that order in Vietnamese.
In case the goods are required to record the date of manufacture and expiry date as prescribed, but the label has stated the date of manufacture according to the above provisions, the shelf life is allowed to be stated as the period from the date of manufacture and vice versa if the label of the goods has recorded the expiry date, the date of manufacture is allowed to be stated as the period before the expiry date.
What is the shelf life of maximum bottled drinking water in Vietnam?
Pursuant to Section 3.2 of national standard TCVN 12391: 2018 (ISO 16779: 2015) on Sensory Analysis - Assessment (determination and confirmation) of food shelf life:
"3.2
Use by date
The end date of the estimated period at any storage conditions has been announced, after which the product will likely not have the normal quality attributes that consumers expect.
NOTE 1: After this date, food is not allowed to circulate."
Accordingly, the end date of the estimated period at any storage conditions has been announced, after which the product will probably not have the normal quality attributes that consumers expect. After this date, food is not allowed to circulate.
According to the current legislation, there are no specific regulations on the shelf life of bottled drinking water.
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