Vietnam: 05 requirements for labels of breast milk substitutes for infants

According to Decree No. 100/2014/NĐ-CP of Vietnam’s Government, label of nutritious product for infants means a writing, print, drawing or photocopy of characters and images stuck, printed, appended, cast or engraved directly on goods and commercial packages of products or on other materials affixed on the nutritious product for infants and commercial packages thereof.

The label of a breast milk substitute for infants must satisfy the following requirements:

- Having the words “CHU Y” (Attention) in upper case, followed by the following phrases in lower case: “Breast milk is the best food for the health and all-sided growth of infants. Antibacterial elements, especially antibodies, only present in breast milk, help prevent and control diarrhea, respiratory infections and some other infectious diseases”. The height of characters must be at least 2 mm. The color of characters must be bright and contrast with the background color of the label;

- Having the following phrases in lower case: “Use this product only under physician’s instructions. Strictly follow the preparation instructions. Feed children with clean cups and spoons”. The height of characters must be at least 1.5mm;

- Clearly writing infant age group suitable to the breast milk substitute;

- Having no images or drawings of infants, breastfeeding mothers and feeding bottles; no words or images implying that the breast milk substitute is as good as or better than breast milk in quality or encouraging bottle feeding; no images similar to those of labels of milk for pregnant women;

- Being printed with the number of the receipt of the written announcement of regulation conformity or the number of the certificate of announcement of conformity with food safety regulations.

Concurrently, other contents of labels of breast milk substitutes must comply with the law on labeling of domestically circulated, imported or exported goods and food safety, and must:

- Provide proper instructions on preparation, illustrated with simple and easy-to-understand tables in Vietnamese;

- Provide instructions on the cleaning of preparation utensils;

- Specify storage conditions, and state expiry date before and after opening.

View details at Decree No. 100/2014/NĐ-CP of Vietnam’s Government, effective from March 01, 2015.

Le Hai

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