Vietnam: What is the order for specifying the date of manufacture and expiry date of goods? What are the instructions for specifying the date of manufacture and expiry date on goods labels?

Main Content

• What do the date of manufacture and expiry date of goods in Vietnam mean?
• What is the order for specifying the date of manufacture and expiry date of goods in Vietnam?
• What are the instructions for specifying the date of manufacture and expiry date on goods labels in Vietnam?

What do the date of manufacture and expiry date of goods in Vietnam mean?

The date of manufacture and expiry date of goods are explained in Article 3 of Decree 43/2017/ND-CP as follows:

Interpretation of terms

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10. “Date of manufacture” means the point of time by which the final phase of goods or batch is completed;

11. “Expiry date” means the date which signifies the end of the estimated period, after which the goods or the batch of goods probably will not have the quality attributes normally expected.

The expiry date shall be expressed by a period beginning from the date of manufacture to the expiry date or expressed by day, month, and year of expiry. If the expiry date is expressed by month and year, the expiry date shall end at the last date of the expiry month;

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Thus, the date of manufacture means the point of time by which the final phase of goods or batch is completed.

Expiry date means the date which signifies the end of the estimated period, after which the goods or the batch of goods probably will not have the quality attributes normally expected.

What is the order for specifying the date of manufacture and expiry date of goods in Vietnam?

Under Article 14 of Decree 43/2017/ND-CP stipulating the date of manufacture and expiry date of goods:

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 they are 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.

The month of manufacture, if required, shall be written in the “mm-yy(yy)” format (according to solar calendar).

The 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 have 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.

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Thus, according to regulations, the date of manufacture and expiration date of goods shall be written in the "dd-mm-yy(yy)" format (according to the solar calendar).

If they are 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.

The month of manufacture, if required, shall be written in the “mm-yy(yy)” format (according to the solar calendar).

The year of manufacture, if required, shall be written in the “yyyy” format (according to the solar calendar).

“date of manufacture", and “expiry date” shall be fully presented or abbreviated in capital letters as follows: ”NSX", “HSD” or “HD" (“MFG” or “EXP”).

What are the instructions for specifying the date of manufacture and expiry date on goods labels in Vietnam?

The instructions for specifying the date of manufacture and expiry date on goods labels are prescribed in Article 13 of Circular 05/2019/TT-BKHCN as follows:

Date of manufacture, expiry date (point 1 of Appendix III attached to Decree 43/2017/ND-CP)

As for imported goods with date of manufacture and expiry date printed on the original label in letter format, enterprises may print the explanation for these letters on the supplementary label without reprinting such dates in number format.

For example: MFG 20 Jan 2020, EXP 20 Feb 2022 can be derived from the following explanation on the supplementary label: For date of manufacture and expiry date, please check the “MFG” and “EXP” on the package, Jan=01, Feb = 02... Dec =12.

Article 14. Ingredients and ingredient quantity (point 1 Clause 1 of Appendix IV attached to Decree No. 43/2017/ND-CP)

Point 1 Clause 1 of Appendix IV shall not apply to water which is used as solvent for glazing or preserving goods and disposed of after using products.

At the same time, Appendix III issued with Decree 43/2017/ND-CP provides the instructions for specifying the date of manufacture and expiry date on goods labels as follows: